Alright boyz, here we go!!! FM 2006 First Impressions - Page 50

Warhammer · 07-10-2006, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ironhead

Ugh...one of my striker's is making me pull my hair out. He has already had 3 or 4 scoring opportunites but has screwed around with the ball instead of taking the open shot! Can't wait until I actually get some transfer funds...

That is something that has me scratching my head right now. I have one young stud striker that has been awesome for us, however, he has stopped taking shots. He had a one on one with the goalie at the 18 yard line and rather than firing a shot, he moved toward the post and tried to pass back to the trailer. The pass got intercepted and we lost the opportunity.

Two things have changed from my previous settings, I toned down his long shots to rarely, and I also moved his creativity settings up in the hopes of him getting open more. Could his increased creativity be causing this, or is it decreasing his long shot tendency?

MalcPow · 07-10-2006, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warhammer

That is something that has me scratching my head right now. I have one young stud striker that has been awesome for us, however, he has stopped taking shots. He had a one on one with the goalie at the 18 yard line and rather than firing a shot, he moved toward the post and tried to pass back to the trailer. The pass got intercepted and we lost the opportunity.

Two things have changed from my previous settings, I toned down his long shots to rarely, and I also moved his creativity settings up in the hopes of him getting open more. Could his increased creativity be causing this, or is it decreasing his long shot tendency?

Could be a little of both, but probably more the creativity. Giving a player high creative freedom that doesn't have equally exceptional decision making and other mental skills (anticipation, creativity, etc. etc.) can mean that the player will waffle or make bad decisions instead of just keeping it simple. I usually don't give that kind of freedom to anyone other than midfielders simply because my strikers are not Henry and I don't want them to try to play like they are. You might want to dial that back down and hopefully he'll stop playing cute and just finish.

Coffee Warlord · 07-10-2006, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonathan Ezarik

Congrats! What year are you in? I just started a career with Notts County a couple of weeks ago and won the league in my first season.

2015.

Took us a few seasons to get out of League Two, since I was enforcing a fairly radical training/tactical philosophy. Had to axe a lot of players who didn't fit my scheme.

We fought our way up to League One, screwed around for a few seasons there. Amazingly, we demolished the Championship, promoting up to the Premiere in our first season. This was our third season in the Premiere, and we've done, very, very well (obviously).

I got very lucky with signing a pair of absolutely stellar strikers, and found a great keeper after our previous very very very good keeper decided to be a bitch and went looking for a bigger club.

FrogMan · 07-10-2006, 11:45 AM

You guys ever felt like your players were quitting on you, as if they'd lost confidence in you?

I'm just getting back to my WSM2006 career and here's the story. I've been managing Luton Town since the start, so 2005-06. Started out in the Championship, promoted to the EPL in 2008. We had a couple of not so easy seasons in Premiership and we're now in 2010, actually just turned the new year in January 2011. Since the start of the season, we're having a very tough time aligning any kind of streak, or even simply winning games. I didn't bring in too many new players this season, although I did bring in a couple, and I feel that our talent level should at least make us win every once in a while, but we're sitting in 16th place and now many players are showing the "SLT" marker, saying they think the team is underachieving. Sometimes we play well, but I often see them making mistakes that are making me want to pull my hair out. I mean missing out on easy goals, making crazy crosspass at the back, that sort of thing. We often stay in the game, play the other team very tight but then break down with 10 minutes to play. Just happened last night, play ManU very tough, even took the lead 1-0 in the first half only to break down in the 85th minute and end in a 1-1 draw. Guys come out of the game with boosted morale so I'm thinking we'll doo well in our next game, but no, we come out flat and drop a goal early on, unable to put one past their keeper...

I'm wondering if their confidence is not simply very low, is that possible? Or could they really give up on me and hope I'm replaced soon? I mean this has happened in real life, could this happen in the game?

The media and the outside world must be smelling something too since when Manchester City sacked their manager, I was mentionned as the likely replacement. Auxerres also approached me to take over the reign of their team, maybe only a week after the Man City link.

Anyway, up next for us in a the home and home semi-final series for the League Cup, where hopefully we could get all together and put one final big drive to finish a bit higher in league play.

FM

Butter · 07-10-2006, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

You guys ever felt like your players were quitting on you, as if they'd lost confidence in you?

Yes. Got Southampton back into the Premiership, and brought over some guys who could definitely help make the push for Europe... but after a mediocre start to the season, a bunch of guys turned up as thinking we were underachieving, and I pretty much couldn't get most of the men back from that... ended up getting sacked towards the end of Year 2, when we were safe from relegation, but far from the top half.

MalcPow · 07-10-2006, 11:51 AM

FM,

Yeah I've seen that a lot. First places I always look are at my captain (is he the best guy for the job, high influence, determined, somewhat older) and then at the determination ratings for the rest of the team. I've made the mistake of trying to put some really talented guys out there who simply weren't determined, and you end up seeing these long stretches of lazy and silly form.

FrogMan · 07-10-2006, 11:58 AM

ahh, thanks Butter and MalcPow. At least now I don't feel like a crazy paranoid dude in front of my PC anymore

In fact, it's the second time this has happened to me. Last time was with Luton Town -again- but in FM2005 after we'd just demoted back from the Championship and we couldn't win the league title that the supporters had become accustomed to... I think now it can be magnified a bit because of my tendency to sometimes lash at the lads in my atfer game team talks. I'll try to nurse them back to some good self confidence...

FM

edit to add that I was sacked midway through the season the first time it happened. This time around, up until our flat game following the ManU game, the board and supporters were both still pleased with my work. That changed after that loss as they are now simply satisfied with it...

Butter · 07-10-2006, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I think now it can be magnified a bit because of my tendency to sometimes lash at the lads in my atfer game team talks. I'll try to nurse them back to some good self confidence...

FM

That was probably a part of my problem as well... the worse they would under-perform, the harsher I'd come down on them. It was a downward spiral.

Ajaxab · 07-10-2006, 12:44 PM

It's 2022 and Jose Mourinho finally gets the sack at Chelsea two months into the season after several trophy filled years. Chelsea take a nose dive and finish 14th in the Prem. I fully expect heads will roll once again.

Karim · 07-10-2006, 05:26 PM

Frogman,

Make sure you have high concentration ratings for your players. When you have the lead, you might want to sub any players with low concentration as they'll act as if "it's in the bag." A guy with low stamina, low decision-making and low concentration late in the game is a disaster waiting to happen.

Karim · 07-10-2006, 05:31 PM

If finally decided to give international management a try. I took over the Czech Republic.

A few questions:

1) I've brought in an Assistant Manager and assigned him to create friendlies. It's July, we don't have a game until October. I'm assuming he'll get around to scheduling friendlies closer to match time?

2) Am I also in control of the U-21 and U-19 squads? I've assigned my Assistant Manager and a Coach to both but I want to change some personnel. I'm not able to.

3) Not international management but... My board expects me to win the Premiership this season - the first time I've had such lofty expectations. What happens if I finish second? third?

DaddyTorgo · 07-10-2006, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karim

If finally decided to give international management a try. I took over the Czech Republic.

A few questions:

1) I've brought in an Assistant Manager and assigned him to create friendlies. It's July, we don't have a game until October. I'm assuming he'll get around to scheduling friendlies closer to match time?

2) Am I also in control of the U-21 and U-19 squads? I've assigned my Assistant Manager and a Coach to both but I want to change some personnel. I'm not able to.

3) Not international management but... My board expects me to win the Premiership this season - the first time I've had such lofty expectations. What happens if I finish second? third?

1) He should yes, but I´ve found international Ass. Man´s don´t schedule as many friendlies as I PERSONALLY would like.
2) I forget and am not in front of my game. Don´t think you can change all of those personnel though.
3) You should be okay as long as you´re in the top group all season, provided your board don´t have a quick trigger finger.

RPI-Fan · 07-10-2006, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

1) He should yes, but I´ve found international Ass. Man´s don´t schedule as many friendlies as I PERSONALLY would like.
2) I forget and am not in front of my game. Don´t think you can change all of those personnel though.
3) You should be okay as long as you´re in the top group all season, provided your board don´t have a quick trigger finger.

I think the Int. Friendlies are VERY limited in FM. Even if you schedule them yourself you can do only 2 or 3 per year (on dates assigned by FM).

That's actually one thing I would like improved. The USA plays a good 6 or 7 friendlies every year and that's not possible in FM.

Cringer · 07-10-2006, 08:44 PM

Ok, so all the talk about FM/WSM lately has got me playing again.

All I can say is that there is really no better feeling then when your team gets red hot and starts kicking ass for a while. Especially at the 'perfect' time. Going with an old stand-by, I am the Albion Rovers that start in SD3 and are predicted to finish near the bottom in season 1. But, I also know that won't happen if I work things well.

So I finish 2nd and win the promotion playoffs. I am in my first year in SD2 right now, predicted to be near the bottom. I am currentyl in 3rd about 1/3 of the way into the season. After a bit of a slow start (1-2-2) I got on a roll. Partick (1st place team) just kicked my butt, but I made a change in tactics at about the 70 minute mark and things went well. So I took those changes and made it my normal tactic with some modifications to it.

So the big change was getting out of the standard 4-4-2, which I don't usually do. I moved my center midfielders, one to AM, one back to DM. Afterwards I went 9 league games without a loss, most wins. At the same time I was on a tear in the Challenge Cup, knocking off two D1 teams (one was just relegated Hibernian) before I defeated D2 Raith to win the cup.

Of course after the cup win, Partick kicked my ass 2-0. I hate that team.

Celeval · 07-10-2006, 08:52 PM

I hate Partick. I've played a couple careers with Gretna and they always piss me off. :-)

FrogMan · 07-10-2006, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

I think the Int. Friendlies are VERY limited in FM. Even if you schedule them yourself you can do only 2 or 3 per year (on dates assigned by FM).

That's actually one thing I would like improved. The USA plays a good 6 or 7 friendlies every year and that's not possible in FM.

Are you sure about that? I'm currently managing Canada in 2011, was appointed right after their exit from the 2010 World Cup (weehee, they qualified but old Frank Yallop felt he was tired of coaching them

) and we played 5 friendlies after the World Cup and I see 5 dates for friendlies in 2011, on top of the upcoming Concacaf Gold Cup...

FM

FrogMan · 07-10-2006, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cringer

All I can say is that there is really no better feeling then when your team gets red hot and starts kicking ass for a while.

there is a better feeling: seeing your team get red hot after they've sucked ass for a loooong while

Yep guys, we're on fire now, or at least, we're winning games. Started with a convincing, if predictable 3rd round FA Cup win, then a 3-0 win in the first leg of the Carling Cup Semi-Final, and then two wins in league play. While still plenty of players have the darn slight concern tag, the board and supporters are now back to being pleased about my work.

I did one big thing, I stripped down the tactics. I still play a 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond formation but I dropped the crativity slider way low. I just want the guys to play basic ball and stop running around. Coincidence? Maybe, but we started playing better just after that...

Karim, I checked about concentration and I don't have many under 12, except one winger who's at 6 and from now on, he'll get off as soon as we got some kind of lead that I want to keep

Guys, I'm officially addicted again.

Concacaf Gold Cup starts next.

FM

Jaguars · 07-11-2006, 02:03 AM

My side always gives up on me in the CL finals!

Mustang · 07-11-2006, 10:37 AM

Is there a dummies guide to learning about some of the basics on the business side of soccer? (mainly transfer fees).

edit: Actually.. disregard. Wikipedia seems to be setup nicely to do research.

But, if there is a dummies guide to FM2006, that would still be helpful.

FrogMan · 07-11-2006, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang

Is there a dummies guide to learning about some of the basics on the business side of soccer? (mainly transfer fees).

what do you want to know?

Not a knock on you, but I find it pretty straight forward, unless you got some very specific question, anyway shoot it here, I'm sure somebody will have some idea...

FM

Mustang · 07-11-2006, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Not a knock on you, but I find it pretty straight forward,

None taken or perceived. I just didn't know if the transfer fees or business side of football were as quirky as the salary cap side of American Football. I'm just interested in getting FM2006 and I'm just trying to fill in my knowledge gaps.

FrogMan · 07-11-2006, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang

None taken or perceived. I just didn't know if the transfer fees or business side of football were as quirky as the salary cap side of American Football. I'm just interested in getting FM2006 and I'm just trying to fill in my knowledge gaps.

ahh okay, I see what you mean. As I said, it's pretty straight forward. The transfer budget, or how much you can spend to get new players is determined by each team's board. For example, my Luton Town board told me at the start of the season that I could spend $5M to "buy" new players. I say buy the player, but you actually buy the right to offer the player a contract to come play with you. Once all your transfer budget is used, you simply can't spend anymore. You still can get players from free transfers, mainly free agents.

The board also give you a wage budget, but it's not cut and dry, I can go over it, they just don't like it and may be pissed off more easily if results are not coming when we're over budget.

Hope this helps.

FM

FrogMan · 07-11-2006, 11:00 AM

dola, the transfer budget is usually set once a year, around the middle of June for me in England but it's happened more than once that my board came back to me in August and told me they'd unlocked some more budget for me to improve the team.

There are two transfer windows in which you can acquire players in England, one form July 1st to August 31st and another from January 1st to 31st.

My board has also come to me in the past telling me they wanted me to improve the profile of the team and they would allow me to go over the budget if the player was worth it.

FM

FrogMan · 07-11-2006, 11:03 AM

double dola,

btw, I'm in no way an expert, everything I'm spitting out here, I learned while playing the last two version of the game (FM2005 & WSM2006) so I'm a good example of the fact that anybody can learn how to play that game

FM

FrogMan · 07-11-2006, 11:43 AM

delayed hattrick dola

I wanted to tell about something that happened to me for the first time last night, about building relationship with other managers.

It's January 2011 and my team is having trouble. I still have about $4.5M left in transfer budget and that's not enough to make a huge splash on a difference maker so I'm looking at younger players. Some of you may know my past link with QPR from my FM2005 career and I always keep a few of their players in my shortlist to hear about news concerning them. Among them is a 23yo AM RC named Scott Donelly. He's played fairly well for them in the last couple of seasons, with an average form rating of 7.1-7.2 or so. He's valued at 900k so I'm thinking I'll put in a bid at $1.5M. Mick Harford, a former assistant manager of mine now manager at QPR, get back to me with a counter offer at $2.2M. I try my luck and counter again at $2M. Harford agrees to it, saying to the media that his good relationship with me is what made him decide to allow the transfer. I go check in his profile and it sure is there, I'm one of his favourite personnel. I found that to be pretty cool...

FM

MalcPow · 07-11-2006, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

delayed hattrick dola

I wanted to tell about something that happened to me for the first time last night, about building relationship with other managers.

It's January 2011 and my team is having trouble. I still have about $4.5M left in transfer budget and that's not enough to make a huge splash on a difference maker so I'm looking at younger players. Some of you may know my past link with QPR from my FM2005 career and I always keep a few of their players in my shortlist to hear about news concerning them. Among them is a 23yo AM RC named Scott Donelly. He's played fairly well for them in the last couple of seasons, with an average form rating of 7.1-7.2 or so. He's valued at 900k so I'm thinking I'll put in a bid at $1.5M. Mick Harford, a former assistant manager of mine now manager at QPR, get back to me with a counter offer at $2.2M. I try my luck and counter again at $2M. Harford agrees to it, saying to the media that his good relationship with me is what made him decide to allow the transfer. I go check in his profile and it sure is there, I'm one of his favourite personnel. I found that to be pretty cool...

FM

Unbelievable...

SI is out of control. The little touches in this game just blow me away...

Ajaxab · 07-11-2006, 11:54 AM

Just a mini-update on my career. After being dumped by Spain after the 2020 European Championship, France offered me a job. The squad looked pretty good and wasn't that old so I agreed to sign on.

Our 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign put us in a group with Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Iceland and Estonia. I thought we should have qualified with ease, but we struggled to top the group. An ugly draw to Poland at home and an even uglier 3-0 loss away to Turkey meant we needed all of our 8 wins to beat out the Turks in the group by 2 points.

The World Cup draw saw us in a group with Belgium, Peru and Oman. The bookies had us at 5-2 favorites to win the tournament just behind England, Brazil and Italy. I was pleased to see that we probably weren't going to have a whole lot of trouble getting to the knockout phase, but it was anyone's guess how things would go after that.

Group play went as planned as we took all 9 points. But we were paired with Senegal in the first knockout stage and memories of 2002 flooded into my mind. The Senegalese certainly weren't going to be pushovers in narrowly losing to the Germans and drawing with Mexico to finish 2nd in their group. They came out on fire to shock us in the 5th minute with an opening goal. We would come back in the 37th to draw the game at 1. Things would stay that way until extra time. My Bleus scored in the 104th minute to take a 2-1 lead only to be pegged back immediately in the 107th minute. 13 minutes later and we are off to the dreaded pks. Fortunately, my team held their nerve and we escaped with a 5-4 pk win.

In the meantime, England had done us a favor by knocking out an underachieving Italian side (only 5 pts and 2nd place in their group). The quarterfinals saw us paired up with Brazil. My speedy strikers were able to draw 2 penalties after the Brazilians took a 1-0 lead. Both pks were converted and we escaped with a 2-1 victory. Another quarterfinal featured Spain taking out England leaving us with a great chance at a World Cup win.

The semis put us up against the hosts Portugal. The Estadio de Sport Lisboa e Benfica was a boisterous sea of red as the teams took the field. A scintillating first half witnessed trading of goals twice to leave the score at 2-2 at the half. With only 9 minutes to go in the game, my left winger burst through the Portugese defense to slot home the eventual game-winning, crowd-silencing tally. 3-2 France and we are off to the Final!

The final pitted us against surprise finalists and previous group mates, Turkey. I wondered which of my teams would show up--the one who battled to beat Brazil and Portugal or the one who laid down in Istanbul a year and a half before. The contest was pretty even, but we put a lot of pressure on the Turks with 2 goals in the first 26 minutes. They would reply in the 30th minute, but we ended up holding on for a 2-1 World Cup Final win!

It was a pretty amazing feeling to finally win a World Cup. I've been playing versions of this game going back to CM 96/97 and won Premier League and Champions League titles, but never a World Cup. Finally it's happened. I'm not sure what I can do for an encore. Maybe I'll see if we can repeat the French accomplishments from 1998-2000 and hold the World Cup and Euro Championship concurrently.

MikeVick7 · 07-11-2006, 01:12 PM

Also, a little sidebar on the transfer issue. You can also raise additional transfer funds by selling some of your players. The board will give you a percentage as to how much of the extra money that will go towards your transfer fund. Most higher clubs will be 100%, but some of the smaller clubs will only allow like 50-75% of the money you get to be put back into the fund.

Also, some boards will just randomly give you additional funds to use during the season.

FrogMan · 07-11-2006, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeVick7

Also, a little sidebar on the transfer issue. You can also raise additional transfer funds by selling some of your players. The board will give you a percentage as to how much of the extra money that will go towards your transfer fund. Most higher clubs will be 100%, but some of the smaller clubs will only allow like 50-75% of the money you get to be put back into the fund.

oh, so true, completely forgot to mention that. Good catch.

FM

FrogMan · 07-11-2006, 01:36 PM

dola, and the transfer budget is not really linked with the team's balance either. What I mean is that your club could allow you to go in the red when you still have some transfer budget to spend. Happened to me last season, when the board decided to up my transfer budget from something like $7M to $17M in January, even though we only had something like $14M in the bank account, thus meaning I could take the team $3M in the red. I think I posted about this in this thread a long while ago and the general agreement was that given the TV rights in the Premiership (around $24M), it was worth it in the grander scheme of things to allow me to go in debt a little if a transfer was going to secure a spot out of relegation for our club...

FM

Karim · 07-11-2006, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I wanted to tell about something that happened to me for the first time last night, about building relationship with other managers.

Unreal. I thought commenting on managers was a "throw away" feature without any impact so I've rarely used it.

One of my former players has taken over Cheltenham so I'll have to rob them of their best young players.

Crapshoot · 07-11-2006, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

delayed hattrick dola

I wanted to tell about something that happened to me for the first time last night, about building relationship with other managers.

It's January 2011 and my team is having trouble. I still have about $4.5M left in transfer budget and that's not enough to make a huge splash on a difference maker so I'm looking at younger players. Some of you may know my past link with QPR from my FM2005 career and I always keep a few of their players in my shortlist to hear about news concerning them. Among them is a 23yo AM RC named Scott Donelly. He's played fairly well for them in the last couple of seasons, with an average form rating of 7.1-7.2 or so. He's valued at 900k so I'm thinking I'll put in a bid at $1.5M. Mick Harford, a former assistant manager of mine now manager at QPR, get back to me with a counter offer at $2.2M. I try my luck and counter again at $2M. Harford agrees to it, saying to the media that his good relationship with me is what made him decide to allow the transfer. I go check in his profile and it sure is there, I'm one of his favourite personnel. I found that to be pretty cool...

FM

That's absolutely awesome. Seriously.

Chief Rum · 07-11-2006, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

delayed hattrick dola

I wanted to tell about something that happened to me for the first time last night, about building relationship with other managers.

It's January 2011 and my team is having trouble. I still have about $4.5M left in transfer budget and that's not enough to make a huge splash on a difference maker so I'm looking at younger players. Some of you may know my past link with QPR from my FM2005 career and I always keep a few of their players in my shortlist to hear about news concerning them. Among them is a 23yo AM RC named Scott Donelly. He's played fairly well for them in the last couple of seasons, with an average form rating of 7.1-7.2 or so. He's valued at 900k so I'm thinking I'll put in a bid at $1.5M. Mick Harford, a former assistant manager of mine now manager at QPR, get back to me with a counter offer at $2.2M. I try my luck and counter again at $2M. Harford agrees to it, saying to the media that his good relationship with me is what made him decide to allow the transfer. I go check in his profile and it sure is there, I'm one of his favourite personnel. I found that to be pretty cool...

FM

One of the coolest little things I have seen in FM happened in my Sheff Wed dynasty. My fullback Frank Simek got called up to the U.S. team and after playing, he said he owed his first cap to me because of my dedication to him as a manager. That was pretty awesome.

Of course, a year later, I have to look to move him...ugh.

Critch · 07-11-2006, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

One of the coolest little things I have seen in FM happened in my Sheff Wed dynasty. My fullback Frank Simek got called up to the U.S. team and after playing, he said he owed his first cap to me because of my dedication to him as a manager. That was pretty awesome.

In my game I'm manager of Brazil, going into an easy World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay. One of my central defenders in injured and withdraws, so I need an experienced central defender as a late callup, somebody to fly from Europe to sit on the bench.

I pick 33 year old Cris from Lyon as the "lucky" call up and he says "No way, if you wanted me to play you'd have picked me, stick your call up where the sun don't sign". So I say "Screw you Cris, you'll never play for Brazil when I'm the boss" and he says "Oh yeah? Well I don't want to. You cant fire me, I retired first". Then half the team says "We don't like you. You were nasty to Cris. We like Cris". Cut a long story fairly short, we lost at home to Uruguay, despite them being down to 10 men for half the game. Damn that Cris.

GoSeahawks · 07-11-2006, 10:36 PM

I'm sure this has been asked before, but would this game be fun to a non soccer fan such as myself?

Ajaxab · 07-11-2006, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoSeahawks

I'm sure this has been asked before, but would this game be fun to a non soccer fan such as myself?

If you can get through a full season of play realizing that it's going to take that long to figure out the interface and the basics of tactics, transfers, league structures, etc., then FM is the best text sim out there. It will be fun if you are patient, realize that you will make some mistakes and have at least a small bit of desire to learn about soccer. Give the demo a shot (only 6 months of game time thought) and see how things go.

Neuqua · 07-11-2006, 11:36 PM

This is the only game which I have sucked at playing for months on end and yet refuse to stop playing.

I'm no good at tactics.

Karim · 07-11-2006, 11:41 PM

I'm no good at tactics either and have stuck with a basic 4-4-2 formation. I've only made minor tweaks for home and away games, choosing to focus on squad development, scouting and training. I've still managed to win the Premiership and Champions League so don't let your lack of knowledge about soccer scare you from the best sports management simulation on the market.

MrBug708 · 07-12-2006, 12:21 AM

Another cool FM moment

The American FA indicate their expectations

The American Football Association would like to see the team do well in the group stages of the World Cup but realize that it's not necessarily your priority.

In the longer term they believe the USA possess a lot of potential and want to ensure that you concentrate on building for the future.

FrogMan · 07-12-2006, 12:45 PM

I was gonna post the latest twist about my Luton Town Hatters in here but then I realized I would be coming back here to talk about it everyday or so, then why not make it a dynasty report, so here it is:
http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=51110

Come on over and read about them Hatters, or wherever I may end up next...

FM

Warhammer · 07-12-2006, 01:02 PM

I started over a few nights ago since I learned quite a bit from my first season in the game. Lancaster has been promoted with 6 games left in the season. But, I screwed up and said that we will do well next year, and that I feel the team is up for the challenges next year. Most players are feeling good about this, but one of the younger guys now thinks that next year is going to be easy...

I was really shocked that we clinched the promotion so early in the season because Stafford and I were separated by one point with about 11/12 games left. I beat them on their field 2-0, and then run off a 4-0-1 record over the next five games as they go 0-2-2 to open up a huge cushion which was enough to clinch.

What makes me feel really good about this season is that I have balance in my scoring up front. We have guys with 19, 18, 11, and 9 goals. Plus, everyone's value has shot up, we have one guy that is worth $130k (the 19 goal scorer)!

The bad news is that the team is young and after getting a lead tends to sit on it. We ran out to a 4-0 lead in 12 minutes in our last game and didn't threaten for the rest of the game. Still won 4-0, but still, there is reason for concern.

Pumpy Tudors · 07-12-2006, 01:38 PM

I am about to walk out on Cheltenham. As much as I love them and as much as the fans love me, I've had enough. My players are far too content to play in the Championship. We're not the most talented team in the league, but we should not be floundering near the bottom of the table. We're good for at least the top 16 or 18 teams, but we're sitting in 21st with only two months to go in the season, and the only reason we're not doing worse is that Wolves is playing just as badly and can't pass us in the standings. If Wolves had another couple of wins, we'd probably have no hope of catching up.

There is no motivation out of my players. I signed too many guys to long-term contracts because I didn't want to have to sign them to new, more expensive deals every year. Now they're acting like they just want to show up and collect a paycheck. I only have two guys playing with any fire. One is Tim Howard (who has salvaged a lot of draws for us with great saves), and the other is a young kid named Richard Howells who puts his heart into every game. Howells is the anchor of my midfield. He doesn't get hurt, he doesn't commit stupid fouls, and he knows how to get the ball to the strikers. He puts 100% into every performance, and I don't know if he's just that good or if he's afraid of losing his job, but I've never had a problem with him.

As for the rest of my team? Bah. I've seen them make such stupid mistakes this season. I understand that they're playing against better competition, but these are mental errors. Fullbacks who used to protect the back line are now trying to score goals. My central defenders don't give two shits about clearing the penalty area when our opposition applies pressure. Sometimes, my midfielders forget which side of the field they're supposed to be on! Trust me, I'm not telling them to swap positions with anybody. It's like they just suddenly decide that the other side of the field looks prettier or something. They didn't do this stuff two or three seasons ago. Their heads aren't in the game.

All of this is leading to my strikers trying to do too much. On the rare occasions that they actually get the ball, they're trying too hard to score. Some of the shots have been so bad that they're probably knocking low-orbit satellites off course. I've never seen my strikers miss the net so badly and so often.

Everybody's frustrated, and I'm just about to the point that I'm going to set everybody's creative freedom down to 0 and give them all the most basic instructions that I can. You guys want to be overpaid children? I'm going to treat you like children. You will do exactly as I tell you to do, or you're losing your job.

I am not managing this team in League One again. We need television revenue, we need opponents who bring big crowds, and we need a challenge. If this team has to play against Wycombe in front of 4000 people again, I'd probably be better off just stabbing myself in the heart with a shoehorn.

As sad as I feel about it, I think it's time to admit that I've taken Cheltenham as far as I can.

Butter · 07-12-2006, 02:09 PM

I just want to add my voice to the chorus here about the joy that is this game.

I was thinking about it the other day, and the game improves in so many ways with every iteration. Such as: with FM 2005, I was able to take my Peterborough United team from obscurity and make them English champions in 5 years. This time around, I have gotten them up to the EPL, but building them into a power has been a slow process. The elite players just aren't as eager to sign with me as they were in the 2005 version of the game. The tactics don't work as easily as they used to either... teams make better adjustments now, and keep you on your toes as a manager. Players are a lot less consistent (read: realistic) than they used to be. I had a player who used to go out there in the 2005 version and score 20+ goals a year, and he did it for something like 6 straight seasons. This time around, players' performance by year varies a lot more... some years they may look like the 2nd coming of Pele, and the next you're wondering why you ever signed them to a big contract.

In short, I am looking forward so much to 2007, and am confident it will continue the long line of great versions of this game. And if you're reading this thread and haven't bought it yet... DO IT!!! Even if you don't like soccer, or know anything about tactics, you will have fun. You can't help but to have fun with such an in-depth simulation.

For more on how much fun I'm having, click the Posh link below. Even the frustrating years are fun.

Warhammer · 07-12-2006, 02:25 PM

I forgot to mention Iain Swan. Our starting DC gave up a horrible, horrible, penalty in the box in a game we were down 0-2 and managed to tie up in the last 10 minutes of the game. In injury time he fouls a guy when there were 3 other guys about. Guy makes the penalty shot and we lose. I fine him for unprofessional behavior after the game and he accepts the fine, but refuses to sign my contract extension (his form was 7.3+ avg.) and take a contract with a new team.

Gotta love it!

daedalus · 07-12-2006, 04:42 PM

There is a severe downside (and an associated upside) to this game that most don't think about: gaming backlog. I really want to play R:TW, HoMMV, GalCiv2, The Sims 2 expansion packs and JA2 (with the new fan-made patch). And yet I can't bring myself to buy any of those games because I know I probably won't play these games more than a week or so because my team will be waiting for me. (JA2 being the likely exception since there's no monetary investment involved.) Sigh, it's horrible.

And I love this damn game.

Even when it screws me!!!

Ajaxab · 07-12-2006, 05:23 PM

Pumpy's experience at Cheltenham mirrors what happened to me at Exeter. Over the course of 11 seasons, I pulled the Grecians out of the Conference and got them into the Prem. But my players seemed content to settle for the middle of the table for three consecutive years even though I felt like we had the players to do better than that. The one time we did crack the top 4 in finishing 4th, 13th place Arsenal had to go and win the Champions League to screw us out of a chance to qualify for that competition. That seemed to take the wind out of our sails and the team coasted back to mid table mediocrity. After 5 seasons in the Prem, I had to leave. I loved the club and the fans loved me, but I felt like I had got as much out of these players as they were going to give.

I moved on to manage France and have since got one of my dream jobs at Barcelona. I love this game!

ice4277 · 07-12-2006, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

Pumpy's experience at Cheltenham mirrors what happened to me at Exeter. Over the course of 11 seasons, I pulled the Grecians out of the Conference and got them into the Prem. But my players seemed content to settle for the middle of the table for three consecutive years even though I felt like we had the players to do better than that. The one time we did crack the top 4 in finishing 4th, 13th place Arsenal had to go and win the Champions League to screw us out of a chance to qualify for that competition. That seemed to take the wind out of our sails and the team coasted back to mid table mediocrity. After 5 seasons in the Prem, I had to leave. I loved the club and the fans loved me, but I felt like I had got as much out of these players as they were going to give.

I moved on to manage France and have since got one of my dream jobs at Barcelona. I love this game!

I agree, there definitely reaches a point in a lot of managerial careers on FM when you just know that it is the right time to go.

Usually the board decides for me before I ever get to making that decision for myself though

Karim · 07-12-2006, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

There is no motivation out of my players. I signed too many guys to long-term contracts because I didn't want to have to sign them to new, more expensive deals every year. Now they're acting like they just want to show up and collect a paycheck.

You may have tried these things already but I've also signed guys to long-term contracts who need a kick in the pants.

First, I would not even dress the "star" players. Use a reserve player or youngster. I've had some success with this in that it seems to send a message to the rest of the team (did SI really code that or am I imagining things?) and when the player in question returns, you might see an improvement. Repeat when his performance fades again. The added benefit of this is that youngsters are usually highly motivated to demonstrate what they have, you get a chance to see if they can hack it, and it can generate interest from other teams for a quick sale if the guy is not in your plans.

Second, if that doesn't work, publically criticize him. This is risky because it can turn the squad against you but it can work. I got a striker pissed off at me enough that he wanted to prove he was the real deal. This strategy can really backfire so proceed with caution.

If that doesn't work, I'd suggest revitalizing your team with transfers/fresh blood.

aran · 07-12-2006, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

JA2

Is that Jagged Alliance 2?

daedalus · 07-12-2006, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aran

Is that Jagged Alliance 2?

Yes.

07-10-2006, 11:45 AM	#2454
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	You guys ever felt like your players were quitting on you, as if they'd lost confidence in you? I'm just getting back to my WSM2006 career and here's the story. I've been managing Luton Town since the start, so 2005-06. Started out in the Championship, promoted to the EPL in 2008. We had a couple of not so easy seasons in Premiership and we're now in 2010, actually just turned the new year in January 2011. Since the start of the season, we're having a very tough time aligning any kind of streak, or even simply winning games. I didn't bring in too many new players this season, although I did bring in a couple, and I feel that our talent level should at least make us win every once in a while, but we're sitting in 16th place and now many players are showing the "SLT" marker, saying they think the team is underachieving. Sometimes we play well, but I often see them making mistakes that are making me want to pull my hair out. I mean missing out on easy goals, making crazy crosspass at the back, that sort of thing. We often stay in the game, play the other team very tight but then break down with 10 minutes to play. Just happened last night, play ManU very tough, even took the lead 1-0 in the first half only to break down in the 85th minute and end in a 1-1 draw. Guys come out of the game with boosted morale so I'm thinking we'll doo well in our next game, but no, we come out flat and drop a goal early on, unable to put one past their keeper... I'm wondering if their confidence is not simply very low, is that possible? Or could they really give up on me and hope I'm replaced soon? I mean this has happened in real life, could this happen in the game? The media and the outside world must be smelling something too since when Manchester City sacked their manager, I was mentionned as the likely replacement. Auxerres also approached me to take over the reign of their team, maybe only a week after the Man City link. Anyway, up next for us in a the home and home semi-final series for the League Cup, where hopefully we could get all together and put one final big drive to finish a bit higher in league play. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

07-10-2006, 11:58 AM	#2457
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	ahh, thanks Butter and MalcPow. At least now I don't feel like a crazy paranoid dude in front of my PC anymore In fact, it's the second time this has happened to me. Last time was with Luton Town -again- but in FM2005 after we'd just demoted back from the Championship and we couldn't win the league title that the supporters had become accustomed to... I think now it can be magnified a bit because of my tendency to sometimes lash at the lads in my atfer game team talks. I'll try to nurse them back to some good self confidence... FM edit to add that I was sacked midway through the season the first time it happened. This time around, up until our flat game following the ManU game, the board and supporters were both still pleased with my work. That changed after that loss as they are now simply satisfied with it... __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 07-10-2006 at 12:21 PM.

07-10-2006, 05:26 PM	#2460
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	Frogman, Make sure you have high concentration ratings for your players. When you have the lead, you might want to sub any players with low concentration as they'll act as if "it's in the bag." A guy with low stamina, low decision-making and low concentration late in the game is a disaster waiting to happen. Last edited by Karim : 07-10-2006 at 05:26 PM.

07-10-2006, 08:44 PM	#2464
Cringer Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Edinburg,TX	Ok, so all the talk about FM/WSM lately has got me playing again. All I can say is that there is really no better feeling then when your team gets red hot and starts kicking ass for a while. Especially at the 'perfect' time. Going with an old stand-by, I am the Albion Rovers that start in SD3 and are predicted to finish near the bottom in season 1. But, I also know that won't happen if I work things well. So I finish 2nd and win the promotion playoffs. I am in my first year in SD2 right now, predicted to be near the bottom. I am currentyl in 3rd about 1/3 of the way into the season. After a bit of a slow start (1-2-2) I got on a roll. Partick (1st place team) just kicked my butt, but I made a change in tactics at about the 70 minute mark and things went well. So I took those changes and made it my normal tactic with some modifications to it. So the big change was getting out of the standard 4-4-2, which I don't usually do. I moved my center midfielders, one to AM, one back to DM. Afterwards I went 9 league games without a loss, most wins. At the same time I was on a tear in the Challenge Cup, knocking off two D1 teams (one was just relegated Hibernian) before I defeated D2 Raith to win the cup. Of course after the cup win, Partick kicked my ass 2-0. I hate that team. __________________ You Stole Fizzy Lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and steralized, so you get NOTHING! You lose!

07-11-2006, 10:37 AM	#2469
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	Is there a dummies guide to learning about some of the basics on the business side of soccer? (mainly transfer fees). edit: Actually.. disregard. Wikipedia seems to be setup nicely to do research. But, if there is a dummies guide to FM2006, that would still be helpful. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its... Last edited by Mustang : 07-11-2006 at 10:43 AM.

07-10-2006, 11:51 AM	#2456
MalcPow College Benchwarmer Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: San Diego	FM, Yeah I've seen that a lot. First places I always look are at my captain (is he the best guy for the job, high influence, determined, somewhat older) and then at the determination ratings for the rest of the team. I've made the mistake of trying to put some really talented guys out there who simply weren't determined, and you end up seeing these long stretches of lazy and silly form.

07-10-2006, 12:44 PM	#2459
Ajaxab College Benchwarmer Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Far from home	It's 2022 and Jose Mourinho finally gets the sack at Chelsea two months into the season after several trophy filled years. Chelsea take a nose dive and finish 14th in the Prem. I fully expect heads will roll once again.

07-10-2006, 05:31 PM	#2461
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	If finally decided to give international management a try. I took over the Czech Republic. A few questions: 1) I've brought in an Assistant Manager and assigned him to create friendlies. It's July, we don't have a game until October. I'm assuming he'll get around to scheduling friendlies closer to match time? 2) Am I also in control of the U-21 and U-19 squads? I've assigned my Assistant Manager and a Coach to both but I want to change some personnel. I'm not able to. 3) Not international management but... My board expects me to win the Premiership this season - the first time I've had such lofty expectations. What happens if I finish second? third?

07-10-2006, 08:52 PM	#2465
Celeval Pro Starter Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Cary, NC, USA	I hate Partick. I've played a couple careers with Gretna and they always piss me off. :-)

07-11-2006, 02:03 AM	#2468
Jaguars n00b Join Date: Oct 2005	My side always gives up on me in the CL finals!

07-11-2006, 11:00 AM	#2473
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	dola, the transfer budget is usually set once a year, around the middle of June for me in England but it's happened more than once that my board came back to me in August and told me they'd unlocked some more budget for me to improve the team. There are two transfer windows in which you can acquire players in England, one form July 1st to August 31st and another from January 1st to 31st. My board has also come to me in the past telling me they wanted me to improve the profile of the team and they would allow me to go over the budget if the player was worth it. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

07-11-2006, 11:03 AM	#2474
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	double dola, btw, I'm in no way an expert, everything I'm spitting out here, I learned while playing the last two version of the game (FM2005 & WSM2006) so I'm a good example of the fact that anybody can learn how to play that game FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

07-11-2006, 11:43 AM	#2475
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	delayed hattrick dola I wanted to tell about something that happened to me for the first time last night, about building relationship with other managers. It's January 2011 and my team is having trouble. I still have about $4.5M left in transfer budget and that's not enough to make a huge splash on a difference maker so I'm looking at younger players. Some of you may know my past link with QPR from my FM2005 career and I always keep a few of their players in my shortlist to hear about news concerning them. Among them is a 23yo AM RC named Scott Donelly. He's played fairly well for them in the last couple of seasons, with an average form rating of 7.1-7.2 or so. He's valued at 900k so I'm thinking I'll put in a bid at $1.5M. Mick Harford, a former assistant manager of mine now manager at QPR, get back to me with a counter offer at $2.2M. I try my luck and counter again at $2M. Harford agrees to it, saying to the media that his good relationship with me is what made him decide to allow the transfer. I go check in his profile and it sure is there, I'm one of his favourite personnel. I found that to be pretty cool... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 07-11-2006 at 11:44 AM.

07-11-2006, 11:54 AM	#2477
Ajaxab College Benchwarmer Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Far from home	Just a mini-update on my career. After being dumped by Spain after the 2020 European Championship, France offered me a job. The squad looked pretty good and wasn't that old so I agreed to sign on. Our 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign put us in a group with Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Iceland and Estonia. I thought we should have qualified with ease, but we struggled to top the group. An ugly draw to Poland at home and an even uglier 3-0 loss away to Turkey meant we needed all of our 8 wins to beat out the Turks in the group by 2 points. The World Cup draw saw us in a group with Belgium, Peru and Oman. The bookies had us at 5-2 favorites to win the tournament just behind England, Brazil and Italy. I was pleased to see that we probably weren't going to have a whole lot of trouble getting to the knockout phase, but it was anyone's guess how things would go after that. Group play went as planned as we took all 9 points. But we were paired with Senegal in the first knockout stage and memories of 2002 flooded into my mind. The Senegalese certainly weren't going to be pushovers in narrowly losing to the Germans and drawing with Mexico to finish 2nd in their group. They came out on fire to shock us in the 5th minute with an opening goal. We would come back in the 37th to draw the game at 1. Things would stay that way until extra time. My Bleus scored in the 104th minute to take a 2-1 lead only to be pegged back immediately in the 107th minute. 13 minutes later and we are off to the dreaded pks. Fortunately, my team held their nerve and we escaped with a 5-4 pk win. In the meantime, England had done us a favor by knocking out an underachieving Italian side (only 5 pts and 2nd place in their group). The quarterfinals saw us paired up with Brazil. My speedy strikers were able to draw 2 penalties after the Brazilians took a 1-0 lead. Both pks were converted and we escaped with a 2-1 victory. Another quarterfinal featured Spain taking out England leaving us with a great chance at a World Cup win. The semis put us up against the hosts Portugal. The Estadio de Sport Lisboa e Benfica was a boisterous sea of red as the teams took the field. A scintillating first half witnessed trading of goals twice to leave the score at 2-2 at the half. With only 9 minutes to go in the game, my left winger burst through the Portugese defense to slot home the eventual game-winning, crowd-silencing tally. 3-2 France and we are off to the Final! The final pitted us against surprise finalists and previous group mates, Turkey. I wondered which of my teams would show up--the one who battled to beat Brazil and Portugal or the one who laid down in Istanbul a year and a half before. The contest was pretty even, but we put a lot of pressure on the Turks with 2 goals in the first 26 minutes. They would reply in the 30th minute, but we ended up holding on for a 2-1 World Cup Final win! It was a pretty amazing feeling to finally win a World Cup. I've been playing versions of this game going back to CM 96/97 and won Premier League and Champions League titles, but never a World Cup. Finally it's happened. I'm not sure what I can do for an encore. Maybe I'll see if we can repeat the French accomplishments from 1998-2000 and hold the World Cup and Euro Championship concurrently. Last edited by Ajaxab : 07-11-2006 at 11:56 AM.

07-11-2006, 01:12 PM	#2478
MikeVick7 College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Ron, Mexico	Also, a little sidebar on the transfer issue. You can also raise additional transfer funds by selling some of your players. The board will give you a percentage as to how much of the extra money that will go towards your transfer fund. Most higher clubs will be 100%, but some of the smaller clubs will only allow like 50-75% of the money you get to be put back into the fund. Also, some boards will just randomly give you additional funds to use during the season. __________________ Hattrick - Seattle Reign (224367)

07-11-2006, 01:36 PM	#2480
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	dola, and the transfer budget is not really linked with the team's balance either. What I mean is that your club could allow you to go in the red when you still have some transfer budget to spend. Happened to me last season, when the board decided to up my transfer budget from something like $7M to $17M in January, even though we only had something like $14M in the bank account, thus meaning I could take the team $3M in the red. I think I posted about this in this thread a long while ago and the general agreement was that given the TV rights in the Premiership (around $24M), it was worth it in the grander scheme of things to allow me to go in debt a little if a transfer was going to secure a spot out of relegation for our club... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

07-11-2006, 10:36 PM	#2485
GoSeahawks High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Olympia, Wa	I'm sure this has been asked before, but would this game be fun to a non soccer fan such as myself?

07-11-2006, 11:36 PM	#2487
Neuqua Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Chicago, Ill	This is the only game which I have sucked at playing for months on end and yet refuse to stop playing. I'm no good at tactics. __________________ Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?

07-11-2006, 11:41 PM	#2488
Karim College Starter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Calgary	I'm no good at tactics either and have stuck with a basic 4-4-2 formation. I've only made minor tweaks for home and away games, choosing to focus on squad development, scouting and training. I've still managed to win the Premiership and Champions League so don't let your lack of knowledge about soccer scare you from the best sports management simulation on the market.

07-12-2006, 12:21 AM	#2489
MrBug708 Head Coach Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Whittier	Another cool FM moment The American FA indicate their expectations The American Football Association would like to see the team do well in the group stages of the World Cup but realize that it's not necessarily your priority. In the longer term they believe the USA possess a lot of potential and want to ensure that you concentrate on building for the future.

07-12-2006, 12:45 PM	#2490
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	I was gonna post the latest twist about my Luton Town Hatters in here but then I realized I would be coming back here to talk about it everyday or so, then why not make it a dynasty report, so here it is: http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ad.php?t=51110 Come on over and read about them Hatters, or wherever I may end up next... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

07-12-2006, 01:02 PM	#2491
Warhammer Pro Starter Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Dayton, OH	I started over a few nights ago since I learned quite a bit from my first season in the game. Lancaster has been promoted with 6 games left in the season. But, I screwed up and said that we will do well next year, and that I feel the team is up for the challenges next year. Most players are feeling good about this, but one of the younger guys now thinks that next year is going to be easy... I was really shocked that we clinched the promotion so early in the season because Stafford and I were separated by one point with about 11/12 games left. I beat them on their field 2-0, and then run off a 4-0-1 record over the next five games as they go 0-2-2 to open up a huge cushion which was enough to clinch. What makes me feel really good about this season is that I have balance in my scoring up front. We have guys with 19, 18, 11, and 9 goals. Plus, everyone's value has shot up, we have one guy that is worth $130k (the 19 goal scorer)! The bad news is that the team is young and after getting a lead tends to sit on it. We ran out to a 4-0 lead in 12 minutes in our last game and didn't threaten for the rest of the game. Still won 4-0, but still, there is reason for concern.

07-12-2006, 01:38 PM	#2492
Pumpy Tudors Bounty Hunter Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Pittsburgh, PA	I am about to walk out on Cheltenham. As much as I love them and as much as the fans love me, I've had enough. My players are far too content to play in the Championship. We're not the most talented team in the league, but we should not be floundering near the bottom of the table. We're good for at least the top 16 or 18 teams, but we're sitting in 21st with only two months to go in the season, and the only reason we're not doing worse is that Wolves is playing just as badly and can't pass us in the standings. If Wolves had another couple of wins, we'd probably have no hope of catching up. There is no motivation out of my players. I signed too many guys to long-term contracts because I didn't want to have to sign them to new, more expensive deals every year. Now they're acting like they just want to show up and collect a paycheck. I only have two guys playing with any fire. One is Tim Howard (who has salvaged a lot of draws for us with great saves), and the other is a young kid named Richard Howells who puts his heart into every game. Howells is the anchor of my midfield. He doesn't get hurt, he doesn't commit stupid fouls, and he knows how to get the ball to the strikers. He puts 100% into every performance, and I don't know if he's just that good or if he's afraid of losing his job, but I've never had a problem with him. As for the rest of my team? Bah. I've seen them make such stupid mistakes this season. I understand that they're playing against better competition, but these are mental errors. Fullbacks who used to protect the back line are now trying to score goals. My central defenders don't give two shits about clearing the penalty area when our opposition applies pressure. Sometimes, my midfielders forget which side of the field they're supposed to be on! Trust me, I'm not telling them to swap positions with anybody. It's like they just suddenly decide that the other side of the field looks prettier or something. They didn't do this stuff two or three seasons ago. Their heads aren't in the game. All of this is leading to my strikers trying to do too much. On the rare occasions that they actually get the ball, they're trying too hard to score. Some of the shots have been so bad that they're probably knocking low-orbit satellites off course. I've never seen my strikers miss the net so badly and so often. Everybody's frustrated, and I'm just about to the point that I'm going to set everybody's creative freedom down to 0 and give them all the most basic instructions that I can. You guys want to be overpaid children? I'm going to treat you like children. You will do exactly as I tell you to do, or you're losing your job. I am not managing this team in League One again. We need television revenue, we need opponents who bring big crowds, and we need a challenge. If this team has to play against Wycombe in front of 4000 people again, I'd probably be better off just stabbing myself in the heart with a shoehorn. As sad as I feel about it, I think it's time to admit that I've taken Cheltenham as far as I can. __________________ No, I am not Batman, and I will not repair your food processor.

07-12-2006, 02:09 PM	#2493
Butter Coordinator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Dayton, OH	I just want to add my voice to the chorus here about the joy that is this game. I was thinking about it the other day, and the game improves in so many ways with every iteration. Such as: with FM 2005, I was able to take my Peterborough United team from obscurity and make them English champions in 5 years. This time around, I have gotten them up to the EPL, but building them into a power has been a slow process. The elite players just aren't as eager to sign with me as they were in the 2005 version of the game. The tactics don't work as easily as they used to either... teams make better adjustments now, and keep you on your toes as a manager. Players are a lot less consistent (read: realistic) than they used to be. I had a player who used to go out there in the 2005 version and score 20+ goals a year, and he did it for something like 6 straight seasons. This time around, players' performance by year varies a lot more... some years they may look like the 2nd coming of Pele, and the next you're wondering why you ever signed them to a big contract. In short, I am looking forward so much to 2007, and am confident it will continue the long line of great versions of this game. And if you're reading this thread and haven't bought it yet... DO IT!!! Even if you don't like soccer, or know anything about tactics, you will have fun. You can't help but to have fun with such an in-depth simulation. For more on how much fun I'm having, click the Posh link below. Even the frustrating years are fun. __________________ My listening habits

07-12-2006, 02:25 PM	#2494
Warhammer Pro Starter Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Dayton, OH	I forgot to mention Iain Swan. Our starting DC gave up a horrible, horrible, penalty in the box in a game we were down 0-2 and managed to tie up in the last 10 minutes of the game. In injury time he fouls a guy when there were 3 other guys about. Guy makes the penalty shot and we lose. I fine him for unprofessional behavior after the game and he accepts the fine, but refuses to sign my contract extension (his form was 7.3+ avg.) and take a contract with a new team. Gotta love it!

07-12-2006, 04:42 PM	#2495
daedalus Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000	There is a severe downside (and an associated upside) to this game that most don't think about: gaming backlog. I really want to play R:TW, HoMMV, GalCiv2, The Sims 2 expansion packs and JA2 (with the new fan-made patch). And yet I can't bring myself to buy any of those games because I know I probably won't play these games more than a week or so because my team will be waiting for me. (JA2 being the likely exception since there's no monetary investment involved.) Sigh, it's horrible. And I love this damn game. Even when it screws me!!!

07-12-2006, 05:23 PM	#2496
Ajaxab College Benchwarmer Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Far from home	Pumpy's experience at Cheltenham mirrors what happened to me at Exeter. Over the course of 11 seasons, I pulled the Grecians out of the Conference and got them into the Prem. But my players seemed content to settle for the middle of the table for three consecutive years even though I felt like we had the players to do better than that. The one time we did crack the top 4 in finishing 4th, 13th place Arsenal had to go and win the Champions League to screw us out of a chance to qualify for that competition. That seemed to take the wind out of our sails and the team coasted back to mid table mediocrity. After 5 seasons in the Prem, I had to leave. I loved the club and the fans loved me, but I felt like I had got as much out of these players as they were going to give. I moved on to manage France and have since got one of my dream jobs at Barcelona. I love this game! Last edited by Ajaxab : 07-12-2006 at 05:24 PM.

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