So I'm managing my club team and Wales has offered me the job as NT coach. If I accept, will I continue to also manage my club team or just solely the NT?

You will coach both. You can also choose to resign either job at any time as well.

even more, if a game for both teams fall on the same day, they will clone you and you will be able to manager both games, even if they're on separate continents ;)

That's not a joke, I've done it multiple times...

FM

Ha! Same here. I remember those days traveling at the speed of sound halfway across the planet in an hour. :)

Is it a plane? Is it a bird? No, it's SuperFrogMan!!! :D

FM

Many more thanks for this tip... it has helped me a lot as well.

FM

Where did you extract that cleaner to to get it to recognize your save game files. It isnt showing any as available to select, where I have it.

The first screen is recently opened saves by it - you want to go to 'Clean' and 'Open' one. They're usually in My Documents \ Sports Interactive \ \ games

How the heck do you get your team to regain confidence?

My team rolled through the first season, and even in the second season they played well early, but all of a sudden we are giving up a ton of goals and we can't score...

what he said. I simply unzipped to its own folder on my desktop and then browsed to where the files are in "My Documents".

Quiksand, glad to be of help :)

FM

This game always provides something new. I clinched the EPL with 6 regular season games to go, along with a Champions League semi-final against Newcastle, who was second in the EPL. I figured despite setting a new goals and points record in the EPL, my team would keep focused for the match against Newcastle. Instead, my team gives up on the rest of the season, we win only one of the remaining six matches, draw one, lose four and get absolutely demolished in the semi-final. We lost our last game of the year in woeful fashion, with almost everyone getting a '5' rating. I let them have it but I think they were more interested in heading on vacation.

Easy. Win. :p

usually I get down on em, and that makes em try harder to prove something to me.

but it also can make them turn on you and not want to play for you, then playing worse and not winning more...

FM

then you get a new player in with something to prove..

I'm not talking about one player who stops playing, the whole 11 of them, and more...

FM

then, you're fucked.

Realistic, neh?

i sooo misread that...i was sure it said go down on em, and i seriously was typing out a really inquisitive reponse about what game you were playing...then i re-read and just held down backspace as i thought to myself "im a retard"

I usually have a lifesize cardboard cutout of the team's female owner dressed in something naughty. Then, everytime we win, I peel a section of her clothing off.

Or I play my veterans with the highest determination, mixed in with some youngsters with something to prove and sit the high skill/low mentality guys, but have them on the bench. Then, if you're winning, you can sub some of those guys in so that they feel like they've been a part of the win also.

So I've been searching around youtube to see some soccer clips and this tackle just flat out made me die laughing.

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U0QJltJFIw&mode=related&search=soccer%20tackles

also found that inter has a team anthem, and it's pretty catchy. don't understand a word but i'm humming it while i play.

Ok, so my Albion Rovers went from SD3 to SD1 after only two seasons. I finished 3rd my first year in SD1, thanks in part to Kris Kettell at forward. I then sold him for almost 3 million big ones, which helped my team greatly.

The next year was a bit rough without him though, and we finished 5th. Still, picked to be relugated so I was ok overall I guess. Year 3 in SD1, I start slow again, 3rd year in a row and it drives me nuts. Find my combo of forwards finally, and pick up a MR in January who I thought had a bright future. I end up in 4th to finish the year. Once again I was just supposed to avoid relugation so I am ok I guess.

Year 4 in SD1, I finally start strong. My star F surprises me though. The guy has always had the ratings, but never played real well. He played little for two years, but also managed to be a Favorite Personel for the Wee Rovers already. Anyways, the guy starts to live up to his ratings and salary. HE is on fire, along with a young 19 year old I got before the season.

The key though is, like Kittell was, another Swede. That MR I picked up has been making huge gains in training and is playing great.

I have been struggling a little as Janruary approaches, but still hold 1st place by a point. Now my Swedish MR is getting everyone interested though, and I can talk Celtic into paying 4 million for him. I could always use the money, but I am not sure I want to send him packing yet. I want to get into the SPL, and I think I need him to feed my F's. My ML is a 19 year old who plays great, but doesn't have great ratings yet. He just can't be relied on enough, and my backup MR's are good but no where near as good as the Swede.

I'm playing as Borussia M'gladbach in the Bundesliga, pre-season expectations are to fight bravely against relegation.

I'm playing a boring, defensive formation for most of the games (all away games and home games against anybody we don't outclass) with minor tweaks, grinding out loads of 1-0 wins. Just after xmas a rare 2-0 win lifts Borussia into first place despite averaging only 1 goal for per game. We're grinding out 1-0's and being successful, just like the boring, boring Arsenal of old.

Obviously the team is seriously over achieving, so the next 6 games are 1 draw and 5 defeats to lower Gladbach down the table. Only one goal scored in those 6 games and my defence that has been strong all season is suddenly making mistakes all over the place.

Feels like the game is stopping my team from overachieving too highly. Maybe a bit of AI adjustment to keep it "realistic"?

or maybe your team is just coming back down to earth? or maybe the other teams have figured out your tactics?

From what I know about the game, it's not the AI saying 'you've won enough'. It's hitting a losing streak and, through bad luck or making the wrong managerial decisions, not doing what it takes to get out of it.

Critch,

This is not an uncommon belief. Its been a conspiracy theory that's been out there for several versions of the game.

Oh yeah, I'm familiar with that recurring complaint. I'd always thought it was just whinging til I was playing a game as Aberdeen in the SPL and 11 points clear with 3 games to go before the break. The 3 games were against lower teams and should have been at least 6 points closer to clinching, but Aberdeen lost all three. I then had a frotunate power outage that allowed me to go back and replay those three (a real power outage, not me turning off in a huff), and again Aberdeen lost all three. So then I thought I'd try again to test if it would happen again. Long story reasonably short, I replayed the three "easy" games 6 times and the best Aberdeen got was 1 tie and 2 defeats, even changing tactics didn't do any good.

And that's why I now think the AI normalizes teams overperforming.

My team is definitely due a coming back down to earth, they're not very good. It was the manner (and predictability) of it that made me take notice. I don't think it's a matter of the team figuring out my tactics as my team still outshot the opponents in 5 of the 6 (the other was v Bayern, that's always a destruction), they just stopped scoring.

Likewise my oppenents were not making any more chances, they just had the luck to come up against a defence and keeper that were suddenly seriously accident prone.

My Plymouth squad won the EPL last season and the board expects us to do the same this year. Unfortunately, our slide last year after clinching seems to have continued this year. One win and four losses after five games sees us in 19th to start the year. This is virtually the same squad, with no changes to major players. If this keeps us, I'll be sacked in no time.

Just to state, im playing as Napoli in italy, and im 20-0-0 with a +57 goal ratio...second place is 20 points back...havent had any "pull down" in my game.

EDIT: This is the first season, i havent brought in a single player. So its not my players, and im using the default tactic for now, so its not that. Im just kicking ass, and the game isnt pulling me down.

I think more then anything people get upset their great squad takes games off, and blames the game.

The games didnt matter..your players prob. already clocked out and were just cocky from the point lead

So after 5 defeats and a 0-0 "bore draw" that took Borussia M'Gladbach from 1st to 7th in the Bundesliga, 13 points behind league leading Bayern, next up is a visit to Leverkusen. Leverkusen are in 2nd place, the game is live on TV, so the scene is all set for a must-win game for both teams. Gladbach needs to take something home from Leverkusen to keep a UEFA Cup place in grasp; Leverkusen needs the win to keep in touch with Bayern at the top.

Gladbach's poor form continues with Leverkusen taking the lead through Schneider in the 5th minute, the first real chance for either team. Gladbach soldier on playing fairly well, making a few chances to equalize, but fall behind 2-0 in the 43rd minute when Berbatov scores something like his millionth goal of the season.

So it's half time, Gladbach have been struggling for weeks, they're 2-0 down at a form team and the bench is looking bare. At the end of the bench is Jeff Strasser, Luxembourg's finest footballer. He's the Gladbach club captain, a central defender of determination and influence, but he's been out 5 months with injury. He's not bounced back well from his Achilles tendon injury, all his lines on his attribute graphs are plummeting and he's listed as severely lacking match fitness. But this game is over, so he'll get 45 minutes to get back to match fitness.

He grabs the captain's armband for the first time in 5 months and leads his team out, his teeth gritted as he shows the legendary determination that has rightly made Luxembourg famous throughout the ages for whatever it is they are famous for. A 2-0 defeat isn't going to be good enough for this lion of a man.

Within 2 minutes Gladbach snatch 1 back from Sonck. Three minutes later it's 2-2 after Brioch strikes. It stays like that for the next 30 minutes, but the flow of the game has changed, Gladbach know they can't be beaten with the Luxembourgian Lion in the center of defense. Ten minutes from the end the turnaround is complete as Filip Daems strikes from his left back position like a Belgian Chinchilla and puts Gladbach ahead for the first time in simply yonks. The last 10 minutes drag by for the Gladbach faithful until Brison scrambles the ball home to make it 4-2, in the process both figuratively and literally pissing on the twitching corpse of ‘Kusen’s title challenge.

It doesn’t say it in the match report, but you know that on the final whistle the Gladbach players rushed to Strasser and lifted him on their shoulders and carried him off as the floodlights exploded, showering them in sparks of glory. A Gladbach team that had scored 1 goal in the previous seven games, that hadn’t scored more than 2 goals in a single game all season, had managed to score 4 in 45 minutes with Strasser in command.

So that was a nice return to form.

Team's whose main goal is to simply avoid relegation often take the foot off the gas in the second half of the season once they know they are safe. Classic example in real life are Charlton. For the past 3 or 4 seasons they made excellent starts to the season, usually in the top 6 and at leas once in the top 4 come December/January, then just start playing poorly and end up slipping down to 10-14th place by the end of the year. Every season it was the same and every time it made their manager Alan Curbishley tear his hair out, always berating the players saying they should have an ambition to finish in Europe, to the extent that he quit this summer.

The game doesn't do this - however it does model players personalities ...

Generally speaking most people (and players) will start getting confident and believing in themselves if they're doing well at something ... this is 'good' until they start getting cockey and over-confident (doesn't always happen to people, but some do).

If a player in his heart of hearts thinks his team have been 'lucky' and don't really deserve to be where they are in a league, then unless he's got a fairly robust and confident personality he'll lose morale should they lose and almost 'expect' them to continue that losing streak because in his head up until then they've been lucky.

Balancing and managing these sorts of things and ensuring that 'streaks' work in your favour is one of the hardest parts of being a manager both in FM and irl*, there are many managers irl who are great when things are going right - but its the mark of a truly great manager when you can avoid bad runs dragging the team down the table.

*Watch irl when the Premiership kicks off next season - I'll almost guarentee there'll be at least one club over-perform in the first 6-8 games before hitting a poor streak and dropping down the table towards their 'expected' position.

Quite often one of these teams is a newly promoted team who still manage to scrap with relegation later in the season, Wigan last season did themselves proud but no one was really surprised when their extremely strong form at the start of the season dropped off as the season progressed and their final finishing position of 10th while respectable was no where near the heady heights they scaled earlier in the season ...

A lot of about finding the players with the right 'drive' to go on and win things - imho a lot of Charltons problems were self-inflicted and Curbishley might have stayed imho if Scott Parker hadn't been sold off a couple of seasons ago as he was a huge driving force of that team.

I have heard you say this before and fully believe it. I am in fact experiencing it right now with my Albion Rovers in SD1. We finally got off on a hot start after our previous three SD1 seasons starting real bad. I have been fighting to keep it going, thankfully successfully so far. I have had a few losses, and a few draws, but am still out in first place in mid-January.

Along the way though I have had to deal with fits from one of my main forwards, who takes a loss or being substituted for very badly. My other main forward is 19, and my ML is 20. They are playing great but I have been sure to pull them from the lineup every few games to keep them levelheaded (atleast thats my theory, and it seems to be working).

Right now I am worried about all the teams trying to get about 5 of my players. It's driving me nuts. Crap, I got Leeds to offer over 5 million for my Swedish MR. That is more money then my team has in the bank. :) Players seem to be a problem when they get this much attention.

if I remember correctly, this is also similar to what the club I now follow, Luton Town, did in their first season in the Championship last year. At one point, after maybea quarter of the season played, they were in line to promote to the Premiership, or at least very high ranked in the playoffs spots. They fizzled somewhat and ended mid-table or so...

FM

Reality has a well-known AI normalization bug.

This shit is killing me. I have about 4 guys I keep getting offers for that are easy to turn down (for crap money).

But, I have 4 other players who I am getting higher and higher offers for. 1.5 million up to 5 million. I sit there for a few minutes each time going over and over in my head what to do. I keep rejecting right now, but it's getting harder. I just have to get through this transfer window and I think I will be fine. The goal is to get into the SPL, after that I will see what happens. By the end of the year one or two of these guys will probably demand to be sold off.

Still, that money is so hard to turn down.

I have a balance of $116 and a remaining transfer budget of $72.1 million. The most expensive player I've ever bought was an older Morrocan striker for $16.5 million. I was looking for someone as a target man who was dominant in the air and he managed to score a few goals for us off of corners but generally he wasn't worth the money.

We're expected to win the EPL but have started out poorly this season and one of my 22 year old back-up strikers has a severe injury. This means I'm only carrying 3, one being a 22 year old, and my top two are not performing. There's a French striker I'm interested in from Inter but they want $34.5 million, roughly 48% of my total transfer budget.

Has anyone here ever spent that much on a player? Did you get results to justify the expense?

If you're on a club that can consistently make it to the Champions League, then you really don't have to worry about justifying the expense, as the CL money will keep you in the black.

I've spent up to 78 million for a player. Obviously it's on a team that can afford this fee, but eh, it's hard to recoup that much money.

whenever I am spending over say...20 million on a player, I figure that I will never recoup that money in terms of transfer fees for him. so i look at it less in terms of "can i recoup the actual $ spent" and more like an investment, more like "what will acquiring this player allow me to have a shot at winning that i couldn't before?" or "what areas of my team will this player strengthen, and are they that critical that they require spending that much money?"

that said, in my Real Madrid games it's not uncommon for me to spend $20 million USD on a backup striker (Robin Van Persie anyone) and fail to recoup it either financially or in performance.

on the other hand i paid $40 million USD for Gennaro Gattuso in that game and although he's old now and his value is down to 4.8 million USD, the successes that i have had are due in large part to his play and thus I deemed that money well spent.

A lot depends on your club and its situation as to what you should spend and look for from signings.

For instance a £50k signing for Brighton is likely to be all of your transfer budget and as such should instantly be a key player in your side, preferably a youngster who will grow and gain in value over time as an investment.

However for a larger side £50k is a paltry amount and could easily be a speculative youngster who can be canned if he doesn't make it or an older backup player in case of injuries ...

To go back a bit... some people say that the AI makes sure that you don't go on a crazy run to win the title with 10 games left... some would say that the game realistically models actual soccer, in that almost no teams ever go on a crazy run to win the title with 10 games left. Teams may have hot streaks, but they are almost inevitably followed by cold streaks that leave the team about where they should've been in the first place. I think this was said earlier, but it's worth reiterating. I don't think there is some AI exploit that is used to keep certain teams down... but I do think there is an AI trait that realistically models how teams playing over their heads often come crashing back to Earth.

As for the transfer fees, I'm running into that in my Peterborough dynasty... I fear spending too much money because what if we end up 16th or something and I end up in the red? But then again, if I don't ever spend any money, I have to wait around for those free transfers all the time, and half of those good players either don't want to sign with me, or re-sign with their existing club before ever hitting the market. I say, go for it.

I lol'd. :D

I think what has happened to my team is two fold.

1) I have signed a lot of players with different personalities. No matter what I do, some players like it, others don't. I have been going back and forth between berating the players for some dreadful performances and praising them for good ones. We play the #5 team in the league to a draw on the road, but lose to the #20 team at home? We've had some bizarre things happen. We also nearly lost to a local club team in the FA cup.

2) We have had a TON of injuries. This has forced me to shuffle players around on the squads between the reserve squad and the senior squad. I think that may be playing with some of the players' confidence.

3) We just stopped scoring, and taking shooting opportunities. Much of the time we have a scorer on a break that pulls the ball out. We hadn't changed anything in the tactic, so I don't know what is happening.

4) Finally, I changed/added some tactics and those work decently, but we're still playing like a schitzophrenic team.

I've fixed that for you .... runs away from thread giggling before his wife reads it ;)

I've got a question about the U18 and reserves teams.

I'm playing as Notts Co. and we have a 16 year-old striker who has put in 45 appearances for both the reserves and the young lads. I don't control either team and I have him listed in the U18 section. Now, he's played incredibly well (35 goals, 15 assists), but he's only 16. The poor boy is going to kill himself out there. How do I keep him from being picked for the reserve squad? I don't have a shortage of strikers in my reserve side either, so he's not being picked because of a shortage of players.

Also, I've noticed that a lot of my reserve fixtures fall on consecutive days. Is this normal?

If you don't take control of the reserve team the best thing to do would be to call him up to the first team on reserve team game days.

Stupid database error with FOFC when I went to post. Hell if I am retyping that thing.

3 games left, up by 10 points. Albion Rovers are almost into the Scottish Premier League. Woohoo!

Ugh, this may be a sign it's time to move on from the Albion Rovers. After 6 seasons I have them into the SPL. As I start the 'offseason' after my very successful year four in SD1 that got me promoted I get hit with a negative. I assume there is still a stadium size requirement to be in the SPL, it's been a while but I remember that from before I think.

Anyways, the local board rejected the stadium expansion do to strong local opposition.

Ungrateful bastards.

And.....

As I predicted, so far one of my star players has demanded to be allowed to move on. Thankfully I will get 2.5 million for him it looks like, plus 25% of his next sale. The bad part is with two clubs with that offer, I just know he will take the one from Celtic. 6 time SPL champion, and I will have to face him several times a year. Great.

Keep trying on the stadium expansion... of the last 4 times I've mentioned it to the board, twice we got an expansion to go through, and twice it was blocked by local opposition. Just because it was blocked once doesn't mean you won't ever be able to get it done.

If I sell another player for a big chunk of change I will try it. Right now (with 4+ million $$ in the bank) they just tell me they don't have enough funds. :(

Edit: just got my 1.9 million for TV rights and tried again. The board agrees, so hopefully the locals will let it happen.

I am finally coming close to finishing my 1st season in Newcastle and have been recently offered a new contract by the board. I do have some concerns though and wanted to know some opionions on what I could do.

First off they want to decrease the player budget from 41.5 million to 31.5, and offer a modest 2.6 in transfer funds! Does this happen normally? We have remained quite competitive (4th in Premiership - 2 points out of 2nd) and I thought that the board would be willing to increase the budget or transfer funds available to me next year. Is there anyway that this can happen?

I'm wondering if I should delay/reject the deal. I'd like to stick around as I brought in alot of youngsters for my under 18 team that I am hoping will be eventual stars.

Anyways just looking for some advice. Thanks

A question for those more in the know than I:

-My club has suffered a terrible spate of injuries this season -- FAR more than in any of the preceding three. I made several staff changes this year - all of which seemed for the better. My AM does training, and nothing seems unusual there -- but he is a combo Player/AM and does get some reserve time on the pitch. I have a new physio, who is better than the guy he replaced (he's one of two). Anything I ought to be looking at to contain injuries? I have had four guys have to go out long term with hip injuries -- before this year, I wasn't even aware of the "go to specialist" menu, but now I've seen it five times in three months... just seems weird. Any thoughts? Bad luck, bad staff/training, or something else?

A lot of it can just be bad luck, especially if the injuries happen in matches. Its tough to tell with the physios. They can make a difference, but you can't really tell by looking at the ratings of the guy. More of a trial-and-error thing.

If you only have one physio though, I would recommend bringing in a second.

dola

Players can also be more susceptible to injury if they are being pushed too hard. You may want to give them extra time off, or increase fitness training, if you are playing a large number of games in a short period of time.

I love the surprise of spending a ton of money on a player after taking over a new club (Barca) and realizing that we get 30% of the transfer fee back. Turns out the previous manager at Barca had sold this guy to Arsenal with a 30% future transfer fee clause. I come along a few years later and buy this guy from the Gunners with our huge transfer budget (apparently money's no object for Barca) and then realize that we're actually getting a big discount on the purchase because of the clause the previous manager put in. It's nice to get that unexpected chunk of change.

My Albion Rovers update (from the posts at the top of this page).

My first season in the Scottish Premier League was amazing. My odds at the title are 1000-1. basically I have no shot of even staying up in the Premier I guess. Well F--- You, odds makers!

I finished the year in third place. My first year and I get third! I was hoping for, maybe, 5th place at the best. Instead I 'ran away' with third. By this I mean no one had a chance of keeping up with Celtic and Rangers as they battled it out for 1st. Celtic ended up winning their 7th straight title of course. So even though I finished 15 points back of those two teams, I finished 7 points ahead of the fourth place team. I was pretty happy about that. (The only thing that pissed me off was that I had crushed Rangers 6-2, my only victory against Celtic or Rangers, and then my laptop unplugged and that victory was lost forever as I lost 3-1 when I replayed it.)

I did re-try on the stadium expansion, and I guess the locals were ok with it because they started construction before year two in the SPL started. I am a little disappointed in that they are only adding 1300 seats though. That will only give me 3800 seats or so. I hope they are ready to expand again soon.

I have started my second year already and it's going OK, but it could be much better. 9 games into the season I am 2-6-1. My team keeps giving up stupid, late scores this year that gets the other team a draw, something they have never done before. But, where it is good is the EUFA Cup. So far anyways. I was very happy to win my first round matchup against (team from Holland I can't remember right now). So I am into the group stage, yet to play a game. Love the money I got from that one round too.

My team is better this year then year 1 in the SPL, but I just hope they actually show it on the field. I only lost 1 key guy, that being my stud MC. I got a good chunk of change for him though and don't really miss him. I added two good backup goalies, who are young. And I added a badass F and M/F. The only thing is the M/F has only been on my team a couple months and the whole world wants him now, especially the EPL teams. Bastards should have grabbed him when they had the chance.

That seems awfully low for a Premiership team like Newcastle. Are you heavily in the red? Have the board offered you a range of budgets? Make sure you check all the budgets if they have.

My first thought was that he was seriously in debt. This was followed by: "Well, it is Newcastle." :D

Newcastle will probably offer you 15 million more to buy a sixth string striker or something :D

Well I wasn't in the red yet but was losing money each month. I sold 2 or 3 players during the year that I wasn't using but my salary totals were still over the budget of 41.5.

I accepted the contract, sold a couple of higher priced players and replaced them with cheaper players. All of sudden I was making profits so they gave me more tranfer money. My player budget still remains at 41.5 however...instead of 31.5 they quoted at my contract.

I don't know if it gets much better than this. Check out the Media Comparison. He's a keeper. ;)

Never seen that for any of my players before, that's cool. I want one. :D

And did that background image come with the skin you use? If so what skin is it? I want it.

I have a player who "Could be the next Ronaldo", but because of this he "feels burdened by the expectations surrounding him".

It's a fairly new skin.

http://sortitoutsi.net/index.php?pag...le&fileid=1333

Thanks.

Is there a patch or file that will add "UK English" to my language options in WWSM 06? I'm a little weary of the US references, which just don't feel right to me.

somebody from SI (Miles Jacobson I think) once made this file available. Looks like the link I had is dead now but I've uploaded it to savefile. Here's a link to it:
http://www.savefile.com/files.php?fid=2096743

Unzip then run then find your WSM executable file, I think. I did it a long time ago and it still works just fine...

FM

Following on from the UK English file, I've spent the last couple of minutes looking at this post thinking "He's not a keeper, he's a central defender." :)

I noticed that after the World Cup that a couple of national teams fired their managers. I applied unsuccesfully for each of the jobs. I am now in the beginning of my 2006 season and was wondering when I could apply for other national team positions? I went to a few nations but did not see a button to apply. Is there a way to filter nations looking for managers?

Thanks.

Ha! Yeah, maybe I should have chosen better wording there. I'm still looking for him to headbutt someone about 6 years from now in the World Cup.

up until my laptop died, i was in the midst of a season with 11 guys at physiotherapy and 6 of those out for surgery....

yuck

In job security.

Could anyone comment on whether or not it's safe to play a defensive midfielder in the centre mid position, even if he doesn't have a skill level at the spot? I play a 4-4-2 with an offensive-minded mid and a defensive-minded mid and my defensive guy just went down with ligament damage. Fortunately I might have a worthy replacement - some valuable chap who I've been trying to get rid of because his only position is the tweener one between the defensive and midfield lines.

If he isn't rated for it i would go to a 4-1-3-2 or a 4-4-2 diamond formation, if you really want to keep your formation try training him for central midfield and hopefully he picks it up quick

Play him there, and train him there at the same time. He will do well if he's any kind of man at all. If he's not, sell him for a large ham.

I've always used a DM in a 4-4-2. Eventually, they learn the position and become 'Accomplished'. Ideally, find a guy who is 'Natural' at both.

I agree. I've not had issues with using DM's as MC's in a 4-4-2.

Does anyone have any tips to help increase the amount of ball control/possession?

I find I am still winning games by a goal or two but our opponents are outplaying us even though we have more talent. When I look at Match Stats both teams are normally close in shots but they normally have a 55% to 45% ball control.

I'm wondering if there is something in my tactics that I should be doing differently or if it is the type of players I have.

Thanks.

What the hell is this all about?



My team is awarded a free kick and some dufus runs up on my keeper from behind, gets in way of my keeper's kick, then knocks it in from 35 yards out. :rolleyes:

Here is precisely where he came from..

Yes. Don't have the game in front of me, but it is somewhere in jobs>job security and sort by the security column.

What's your time-wasting set at? I find the higher I set that (especially with lower level teams) the better ball control I tend to have. Also, holding up the ball with your high strength midfielders might help.

FYI, this (or something similar) has happened before in real life. At least twice in the EPL in the last few years, once by Robbie Keane and another time by Dion Dublin. One of the times the keeper was David James (against whom I can't remember) but the other time I cannot recall who was in goal. In both situations he keeper had the ball at his feet, slowly playing it forward readying to launch a kick up field when the striker, who was 'hiding' unnoticed behind the keeper, ran around him, nicked the ball off him and slotted home. So not exactly the same as the real examples cam from open play, but close enough.

dola

Here's the Dublin goal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcpM7JkCFEc

Still makes me laugh today...

One thing that EHM spoiled me was on player-specific instructions. I still forget to reset or change my player instructions when I sub or set my lineup. (AFAIK, the "player instructions" are really "position instructions" that stay at the position no matter wh is there. In EHM (the latest one anyway), the player instructions stay with that specific player......how I wish FM had that...)

Agreed, I sometimes forget to change those position settings myself when I sub another player in.

Yeah, not the same thing because on a free kick there is an imaginary circle that opposing players can't be in, right (10 yards?)? This guy was closer than 10 yards.

You are correct. 10 yards.

I am presuming the goalkeeper took the free kick early (ie. before the referee had ok'd it formally) - some referee's will allow this, some call them back until they're prepped.

If this is the case then simply put it was bad luck your keeper was trying to punt a pass to someone before the defense were organised and was unfortunate it coincided with someone passing where the ball was.

Should it have been called back - technically yes, but they aren't always irl .... although normally they benefit the attacking side not the defending one (there are at least a handful each season where the goalkeeper is still organising the defense when an attacker takes the kick).

I've had a similar situation to this, although it didn't result in a goal. Time was running out and we won a free kick around midfield. My guy hurried up to put the ball back in play and hit an opposing player who was standing right in front of him. I'm thinking, That's an automatic yellow card right there. Nope. Nothing. The play continued like there was no infraction. They won the ball and went on the counter attack.

Not nearly as bad as what happened to you, but very frustrating to say the least.

That event definitely wasn't the end of the world as there is no chance in hell that I won't be getting promoted. New question though..

It's early in 2006 and players' contracts have started being tabbed as expiring. From what I've read in the manual, players 24+ with expiring contracts can transfer to my team at the end of their contract for no fee (Bosman transfer). Players under 24, however, will require a fee decided upon by a tribunal. When is that fee determined? I've already signed a couple of under 24 guys and in the screen where I offer them a contract it says that X team is due no compensation. Is that just saying that they aren't due immediate compensation? Or am I getting these players for free? Hopefully it's the former as this would be a pretty easy way to stock up on young talent.

The teams only get compensation if they offer the player a contract at equal or better (I think) what he's making now. So if it says no compensation, you're getting them for free. That's how I've made Notts Co. the powerhouse that it is. :)

From doing a little reading at the SI boards it sounds like Bosman transfers may be one of the bigger flaws in FM. I suppose I'll have to follow some house rules.

I finally got the England job!

I then proceed to revamp the squad, bringing in six of my Plymouth players and several younger players I've had shortlisted but for whatever reason, haven't been given the chance at the international level. Only three veterans from the previous regime return with no one older than 28.

Our first game is against Faroe Islands. One of my guys warns about taking them lightly. We go on to trounce them 9-0, with Plymouth accounting for 7 goals.

I love it! :D

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Ok, so here is the deal with my Albion Rovers game. My first season in the SPL was great. I finished third as I said before in this thread. So in my second season things start off OK. The highlight of my year is clearly the Wee Rovers first ever European play. We win our First Round game in the UEFA Cup and get into the group round. Much to my surprise I win my group!! I am setup for a First Elimination Round matchup with Teplize, who was in my group and who I hammered on the road 3-0. I am feeling good.

I never get to play those games with Teplize though.

December comes and I am sitting in 5th place, within striking distance of 3rd easy. But all of my players have teams going after them. My team was playing so great, but it was killing me trying to hold these guys together. I started to get job offers myself. The football world was trying to rape the Albion Rovers of all they had.

I rejected the first round of job offers, from English League One teams Coventry, Bristol City, and someone I can't remember. A couple weeks go by and A couple of my players are now demanding to move on. I figured to hell with it, it's time for me to move on myself then I guess. I Apply for the still open Coventry job, and for a couple of jobs in the Champions League. They all turn me down, Coventry surprising me because they had approached me before.

So I think, ok, I guess I am staying now. :( And then in the first week on Jan. Bristol City offers me their job again. This time they offer me 2 million in transfer funds, much better then the $600,000 they had offered before. Plus, they had been a Champions League team the year before, were predicted to contend for promotion, and had some decent talent at both F and CB.

I take the job. Bristol City, the Robins, are sitting in 14th place when I take them over. That's why the coach was fired I guess. And like any good manager, :) , I quickly try to loot my old Albion Rovers team. Of course so is everyone else. In the end I miss out on the top 3-4 guys, as they all moved up in the football world to top-notch teams. I did get some guys I loved though, including an 18 year old AMC/F who was already playing great. A ML who I liked. and a couple young DC's who would give me depth atleast since I already liked the two starting for the Robins. I also grabbed two young backup keepers, who would fight for my starting spot since I was shipping out the Robin's current keeper.

To cut this short, I took League One by storm and domintated. The forwards on that team went wild with my system and my one guy broke the league record for goals in a season. My team ended up breaking the record for Goals For, and Team Points. How did we do this? By not losing at all. I won my first 15 games, then had a draw, then won the last 2 or 3. I finished tied for 1st and won the League on GD.

My 'ARGHHHH!!' at the top is because I have to replay the last two games of the year (I am sure I will win because those teams stink, but you never know) and have to replay the months of May and June because I didn't save.

See I woke up yesterday while on the truck and started playing. After two hours my codriver ends up shutting off the truck for some stupid reason. I only had a few minutes to save before he started up the truck and the power to my laptop was cut off when the ignition was turned. I probably only had 15 seconds left before it was done saving, but I couldn't get it done.

Oh well, so I replay the offseason. I don't think I made any major moves, I already had those done. Still, drives me nuts. Dumb laptop with it's dead battery hat won't charge. I need a new computer.

Okay,
does anyone have any idea how to control the defense vs throwins ? Whenever the opposition has a throw in, every one of their guys is open by miles - hell, my guys stand near them but don't go to mark them at all. Its driving me nuts, and I see no way to assign a guy to "step up" and take him instead of standing 10 yards behind him looking at the sun.