Football Manager 2010 SG talk

[Twinkletoes89]

If you need a week or so to step back and try again Brian then please do so.

I cannot carry on the game for at least a week or maybe two with my FM laptop in for repair.

It was never going to be easy all the way through so maybe a little break for everyone may be best and then come back refreshed.

Better a little break and come back and play well again than keep forcing it through and keep losing players!

[Ichabod]

If you need a week or so to step back and try again Brian then please do so.

I cannot carry on the game for at least a week or maybe two with my FM laptop in for repair.

It was never going to be easy all the way through so maybe a little break for everyone may be best and then come back refreshed.

Better a little break and come back and play well again than keep forcing it through and keep losing players!

I agree.

And if you want me to finish the season so that you can start a fresh one in the next turn set, I could do it too.

[Katon]

Problem for me was that we had a team that had a very strong chance of getting promoted automatically, and it frustrated the hell out of me that they stumbled all too often. That frustration was on the verge of stumbling into cheating and I didn't wan't to destroy the integrity of the game. With a single player game, I'd just have dropped it for two weeks and came back when more settled but that isn't an option in an SG.

At least the squad's good enough that disappointing form translates into an easy playoff spot and a chance at second, rather than missing the playoffs?

I definitely know the feeling you're talking about - putting the game down for a bit is probably a wise move, under the circumstances.

[Dantski]

I guess this is partly why I argued for shorter turnsets before we started. Even if you can play a couple of games every day (and I literally can't stomach more than that at the moment) thats still a 2 week turnset. A lot of ingame and out of game events can occur too to slow the pace.

Does everyone feel like they have to play at their best? I felt like I was the weakest player on the roster and not getting the right results when someone else would've done a better job. Not sure if others feel like they have to play 110% or they feel guilty.

Comparing it to a Civ SG, in civ you could knock your turnset of 10 turns out in an hour quite easily (less or more depending ni the situation). In FM you spend that long on 2 weeks, maybe just one week if you've got 2 games and looking for players/staff. I guess 6 months in FM kinda feels like playing a 50-100 turns in civ, possibly more.

[Ichabod]

I agree with what Dantski said. And coupled with the fact that FM is a game that the results depend a lot on luck, where you can feel like you can't control the outcomes whatsoever, it makes a SG very difficult.

I had plenty of luck during my turnsets (I never managed to make the team play well, be it Wimbledon or QPR, but I won a lot of games where the other team dominated) and still I didn't get very good results. I hardly get any titles in my offline games, so I'm kind of used to the situation. But there were times when I just wanted to break the laptop in half.

So, yeah, the biggest problem with FM is that it can be a very frustrating game. I always manage to get a very good squad, even with small teams, after some seasons (since it's the part that involves less luck), but I never win anything reliably. I was able to handle it some time ago, but it's getting harder to stand. I'll probably give up on the whole manager genre soon.

[Brian Shanahan]

Well I can step away for a week and come back to it then. I have Fallout NV installed on my PC (got it recently) so that'll take the edge of my frustration (much easier to take a loss when you can just turn around and kill big green monsters:ranger5

If you want in the meantime take over for the rest of the season Ichabod.

[Ichabod]

Vs. Coventry (away) – 1-1 (van der Bosch)
I started using a 4-1-4-1 tactic, because I seem to get better results while playing more defensively. They scored first in a corner, so I had to get more attacking players in the second half. We got the tie and some good changes to score the winning goal. No such luck, though.

Vs. Bristol City (away) – 0-1
They won with a goal scored from outside the box in their first opportunity in the game. We dominated the rest of the game, but our forwards really suck. All of them, period. It doesn’t matter what the stats say, they simply can’t score.

Ah, I resigned from the Algeria job. I don’t see why we should keep on managing them, since we already have a good reputation. I’m sorry for not consulting with everyone, but I guess most, if not all, of you will agree with me.

Vs. Preston (home) – 2-1 (Frost, van der Bosch)
An incredibly difficult game against one of the worst teams in the league. We scored first but they got the tie in the kick off after our goal. We struggled for a lot of time until getting the winning goal.

Vs. Sheffield United (away) – 2-2 (Jose, Bardsen)
Well, a tie on an away match against the leader isn’t that bad. We had to catch the score two times. Jose finally did what we expect from him, with a wonderful goal when he got pass the entire opponent defense. We had some pretty good chances to get the win after we tied the game, but then our strikers remembered who they really are and missed every single one of them.

Vs. Hull (home) – 0-0
Boring game where we had a single good chance which Silva missed by at least a mile.

Vs. Peterborough (away) – 3-1 (Bardsen, van der Bosch, Frost)
I don’t remember the game very well (didn’t write the report after it because I was too tired). I know they scored in the first minute and that O’Neill was our best player on the field.

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From now on I decided to watch the games more closely so I can try to discover what the problems are in the team. So, now I’m watching the games at the extended option. Let’s see if it makes any difference.

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[SIZE="3"]Vs. Swansea (home)[/SIZE]

We started the game with a 4-4-2 formation, with 2 lines of 4. The attack is Stegeman as a poacher and Bardsen as a target man (support).

The first 20 minutes were dominated by Swansea. I told the player to “Hassle the opponents” and we started to perform better. After Greene suffered an injury, O’neill came in to play as the deep lying playmaker.

We had two pretty good chances before half time, a long shot by van der Bosch that hit the bar and a 1 on 1 after a bad goal kick (this play seems to happen a lot – a bad goal kick – usually a long one-, a header by the opposing team, a one on one to one of the forwards – anyone knows how to stop your keeper from doing it?) that Bardsen missed. I asked the team to “look for overlap” to exploit the bad cover Swansea had on the sides (the wingers from the 4-1-2-2-1 formation weren’t helping the defense much) and it seemed to have worked.

I told the team that we could win the game at half time and specifically said to Stegeman that he could make the difference. Let’s see how this works out!

The second half began very disputed. We had some chances with some good plays by Stegeman. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to score. So, since Stegeman (despite his good plays) had a very bad rating, I changed him and Alcock (playing very badly in the last few games) for Long and Ross.

Just a few moments before the substitution, Swansea scored with a beautiful long shot… Damn! I decided to change the mentality from counter to control. I like playing with the counter setting, but maybe I shouldn’t have done it in a home game. Let’s see if this works out.

The change to control wasn’t working very well. We had a golden chance where long missed the goal by inches after a good set up by O’neill. I changed the mentality to attacking and ordered the team to work the ball into the box, since our long shots were pretty bad. I also changed our wide midfielders to winger positions.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and we lost 0-1.

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[SIZE="3"]Vs. Portsmouth (home)[/SIZE]

Next game is against a very weak team, Portsmouth, which is currently on the 20th position. We must win. Getting to the second place for automatic promotion will be though, so we need at least to get a play-off spot.

I increased the match preparation for this game, because I want the team to get more familiar with the current tactics. This isn’t a very smart thing to do in the middle of the season, but I don’t know what else to do.

I started the game with a control mentality. Let’s see if we get better results with it.

The first fifteen minutes haven’t had much dangerous plays. We had a chance in a corner, but the ball went a bit over the bar. Our strikers were trying their luck from too far away, so I told them to work the ball into the box.

GOOOOAL! Bardsen at the 20th minute! After a very nice exchange of passes between O’neill, Silva and Stegeman, Stegeman did a killer through ball at the back of the defense, leaving Bardsen alone to score!

They almost got a tie in the following play, but Andresen saved us with a nice save.

This was the moment that I realized I made a mistake when setting the team: Stagemen was playing as the target man and Bardsen as the poacher… Well, at least we are winning with a Bardsen goal, but I changed it nonetheless.

After the goal, nothing much happened in the first half. In the half time I changed van der Bosch for Maier, because the former was very tired. I used the “Encourage” half time talk.

At the 46th minute, O’neill almost got a red card after he fouled already having a yellow card. Luckily, the referee only did “a talking to”. For safety measures, I changed O’neill for White.

Portsmouth had a very good chance at the 50th minute, so I decided to change the mentality to standard and asked our players to pass the ball to feet. Hopefully we can keep the possession and don’t give them any more chances.

Stagemen was injured at the 65th minute. I changed him for Johannesson, which was set to play a trequartista role, while Bardsen changed his duty to attack.

The game was heading to a pretty uneventful finish (I used the retain possession shout too, to try to avoid any chances of a tie). They had a couple of long shots where Andersen showed safe hands, but nothing too serious. Then, we scored our second goal at injury time. Alcock (that wasn’t playing very well) scored in a fee goal after a rebound by the opposition keeper (in a Bardsen shoot after a nice Johannesson pass.

DAMN! I forgot to give an end game talk! ARGH! I pressed continue by mistake… The players will probably riot tomorrow, since I didn’t say “good game” or something like that…

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[SIZE="3"]Nottm Forest (away)[/SIZE]

Nottm Forest is currently at the 12th position, so it won’t be an easy game. It’s the 41th game in the season and it’s almost impossible to get second place (Leeds has 4 more points and one less game – EDIT: the missing game was a tie, so they are leading by 5 points). We are currently at 3rd position and the play-offs are looking a very possible thing.

This time we started with a counter mentality, since it’s an away game against a good opposition.

GOOOOAL! BARDSEN! After a nice triangulation between O’neill, Stagemen and Bardsen, the latter got in a pretty good position to score and didn’t disappoint us! Now we have to hold this!

Unfortunately, they tied the game with a long shot at the 10 minute mark… DAMN! All their chances were long shots… This is so annoying… We never ever scored a goal from a outside the box shot…

Bardsen missed a crucial chance at 12th minute after a good combination between Meier and van der Bosch… I hate when players lose 1 on 1 chances…

GOOOOALLLL! STEGEMAN!! Finally a goal from the Holland wonderkid!! We kept dominating the game even after they tied and got our second goal in a nice flank play by Meier!

They started to pressure after our second goal, so I asked the team to retain possession. They had a very dangerous chance in a corner kick, but the defense managed to take it out almost from inside the goal. Luckily, we hold the result until the half time.

I changed Mark Frost for Mark Philipps in the half time (DL position), since the first was tired and playing badly (6.2 rating). I told the team that I was pleased.

Kopacka injured at 60th minute, White came in. The game is very difficult.
We aren’t being dominated, but they are getting some chances, especially in corners. I asked the team to pass to feet. Niko Maier was also very tired, so I replaced him with Joao Silva, that was set to play as a ball winning midfielder (with van der Bosch playing the left midfield).

…..They got the tie at 66… Ferrini made a very nice play, getting passed our defender and placing the shot…

After that, we dominated the rest of the match, but didn’t score. We had some pretty good chances, including a header in a corner that hit the bar. The tie is not that bad result, but we deserved better.

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We are now at 5th position, 4 behind Leeds (2nd) and 1 point behind the 3rd and 4th. Damn, we could be in a good position to get the second place if we had won against Nottm… Well, at least our next game is against Reading (3rd), so we can at least secure a good spot in the playoffs if we manage to win.

Kieran Crean and Steffen Albano were disappointed for lack of first team football. I listed Crean, because he’s old and doesn’t have much to offer, in my opinion, but I said to Albano that I’d give him some first team football… Not sure if I’m going to keep the promise, though… The, Allsop said the same thing, so I said I’d let him go out in a loan…

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[SIZE="3"]
Vs. Reading (home)[/SIZE]

Oh boy, this is a very important game… Despite my tension, we went with a control mentality, because we need the win.

The first few minutes are very tense… We have some sort of edge, but it’s a dangerous game. I asked the team to work the ball into the box, because they were risking from too far away.

GOOOOALLLL! STEGEMAN!!! A counter attack after a free kick at 24 minutes, Stegeman crossed all the field, entered the box and had a powerful finish! Great Goal and very important one too!

Damn… Bardsen lost a crazy good chance with a finish from inside the box… The opponent goalkeeper sent it to a corner. Alcock also lost a pretty good chance at 34 after a good pass from Bardsen.

We really should have gone to half time with a bigger lead. We had a lot of chances (they only had one dangerous chance in a corner), but their keeper is performing pretty well. I exchanged Maier for Ross for the second half, due to physical issues.

DAMN!!!! They tied the game at 68 with a stupid goal after Andresen failed while coming out of the goal. Yes, the goalkeepers always fail when you have an important game… Stupid game…

They had a player sent off at 73, so I went full attack. I took off Alcock, playing bad again, and used Jurmin. I switched the tactic a bit to reinforce the attacks in the middle, including using the exploit the middle option.

GOAAAALLLLLL!!!! Stegeman again!!!! Finally we are ahead again (82 minutes)!! I switched back to standard mentality. Hopefully we can secure the win!!

YES!!! A very, very important win!!! YES!!!

We finally have an attack that is working decently with the Stegeman, Bardsen duo. Jose, which is coming back from an injury, will have to warm the bench for some time.

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We are 2 points away from the second place (Leeds) with the same number of games. There’s another 4 games until the end of the season (Milwall, Leicester, Huddersfield and Ipswich). I think I’ll stop here to get some advice. The team improved a lot after I started playing watching more of the game. And it started to become a more fun thing to do the reports (I even took some screenshots to make this better looking, but I used the wrong keys... won't happen again).

The problem I was having with this SG is that it didn't seem much like one. I think we can change the way we play this. Maybe we discuss a formation on the start of the season and we vote to see which is the prefered one. Then, everyone play some set of games, like 4 or 5 giving a more detailed report. What do you guys think? Then we can have more discussion and more fun, in my opinion.

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About the team, I see that a lot of players are underperforming and I don't think we have good center midfielders. O'neill was doing a good job as a deep lying playmaker, but he got an injury in the last game. Van der Bosch is our best midfielder, IMO, be it playing at left or at the center, so i'd use it in every game he has the condition. Alcock is very disappointing, he doesn't participate much in the games and I'd consider selling him in the next season (his wage is pretty high too, due to the match highest earner clause).

Our defense is pretty good and we have a lot of options. We are having some problems in set pieces, though, but I don't know what to do about it.

Andresen is a good keeper, but he fails too much, so he's not very reliable. But he's the best goalkeeper we have by far, IMO.

The attack is full of great players, but they weren't performing very well. Jose should have been one of the top league goalscorers, but he misses a lot of chances. I don't like Bardsen, but I have to admit he's the best performer until now, so he's a starter for me. Stegeman finally started to show his true potential in the last few games, so I hope he can keep on going.

I'm working on team blend right now and I pumped up the match preparation. We have a lot of players that don't speak english and that can't blend well into the squad. We have to fix this to really take 100% from this squad. We should be in an easy 2nd place, maybe even 1st place, based on our players, so maybe this is a relevant thing.

Here's the save! I'd greatly appreciate your comments and insight. Maybe TT could play the next games, since I supported a SG with smaller turnsets. I think he can manage to get us the needed boost to make it to the playoffs or even get us the 2nd place!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21249278/Success...-%20QPR.fm


As a bonus, here's some managing lessons by Joel Santana, a very prestigious brazilian manager, while he was South Africa manager:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT1EkIgfjYc

[Mist]

About the team, I see that a lot of players are underperforming and I don't think we have good center midfielders.

You have some brilliant attacking CMs. But they didn't really play with each other for very long. They need time to gel.
Some of these could play a playmaker role. But each and every one of them is selfish.
You have a dearth of defensive midfield options. There's Silva, Barak if you decide to move him forward and then nothing for a long while.

O'neill was doing a good job as a deep lying playmaker, but he got an injury in the last game.

He has potential to become a good one, but you shouldn't base your formation on him. He's not there yet.

Van der Bosch is our best midfielder, IMO, be it playing at left or at the center, so i'd use it in every game he has the condition.

Sure, but half of your squad doesn't like him. And this will start showing. Expect to have to sell him within a couple years.

Alcock is very disappointing, he doesn't participate much in the games and I'd consider selling him in the next season (his wage is pretty high too, due to the match highest earner clause).

You really should have sold him long ago.

Our defense is pretty good and we have a lot of options. We are having some problems in set pieces, though, but I don't know what to do about it.

Uhm, no. Phillips and McCarthy are good. Frost has such frighteningly poor concentration I wouldn't put him in any of my teams given choice. Molina is decent, so is Beveridge. Chrisitan might make a nice right back one of these days. Everyone else is crap. And you don't have any prospects.

Andresen is a good keeper, but he fails too much, so he's not very reliable. But he's the best goalkeeper we have by far, IMO.

Yes, he's best by far and yes he's average. You also have no backup for him, Allsop is inconsistent and O'Connor won't cut it at this level.

The attack is full of great players, but they weren't performing very well. Jose should have been one of the top league goalscorers, but he misses a lot of chances. I don't like Bardsen, but I have to admit he's the best performer until now, so he's a starter for me. Stegeman finally started to show his true potential in the last few games, so I hope he can keep on going.

Your attack is very one-dimensional, there's a lot of similar players there. Only suitable deep forward is Johannessen, only muscle comes from Crean.

I'm working on team blend right now and I pumped up the match preparation. We have a lot of players that don't speak english and that can't blend well into the squad. We have to fix this to really take 100% from this squad. We should be in an easy 2nd place, maybe even 1st place, based on our players, so maybe this is a relevant thing.

It is. Players also need games together and having similar personality helps.

I started playing the save from the same point you did, I might reach end of the season by September ( yes, I do take time on my saves ) I'll try to write some sort of relation of how it went. Few initial pointers :
-your training regime is bad ( a lot of players are unhappy with training )
-you really should have joined the reserve league ( to keep your backup players match fit )
-all your U-18 players should have been shown the doors months ago
-*never* send your assistant to the press conferences, even if they indeed are boring and repetitive ( kills team morale without fail )
-your first team lacks dedicated defensive coach
-you're not talking to your players nearly enough, if you did, you might have had this some time ago :

He's about to sign Player/Coach contract too

[Ichabod]

Oh boy, that's a lot of information. Goes to show how little I know of the game.

*Do you have any good trainings, Mist? Or you make them based on each save/players? I always use something from the internet, because I never tried to mess with it much. I just try to get good coaches and that's it. Is there much problems to keep the players in a training schedule they are not happy with?

*I always go to press conferences. I repeat the same thing most of the time (just praising everybody -> should I do it differently?), but I always go.

*I think we didn't get the invitation to the reserve league, I always accept it, so I don't know why we aren't playing it... I thought we were

*What's the benefit of letting the bad sub-18 players go?

*I never talk with players . Only do it when they are unhappy (and the result of the conversations seems to be totally random). What should I say to them? What's the possible effect of these talks?


Well, since I can start and finish a season in a week, you can probably see that I'm not a good manager. Maybe I should stop with my cursing at the game and actually try to learn how to play it !

[Mist]

*Do you have any good trainings, Mist? Or you make them based on each save/players? I always use something from the internet, because I never tried to mess with it much. I just try to get good coaches and that's it.

I used to be like that, but I got fed up with achieving random results. I do schedules per player basis in higher leagues. There are many philosophies you can follow, since I prefer well rounded players myself I set the training to fix any obvious weaknesses in the player considering the position I want to play him. So the flowchart in my case is : decide the teams formation -> assign players to a position/role on the pitch ( each player gets one position, which doesn't change, for his whole career under me ) -> do trainings to correct flaws. Training effects need at least a season to start showing.

Is there much problems to keep the players in a training schedule they are not happy with?

Yes. The training effects are weaker and player morale is lower.

*I always go to press conferences. I repeat the same thing most of the time (just praising everybody -> should I do it differently?), but I always go.

Depends, sometimes it's better to dampen the confidence or expectations a bit. If you're on a 10 match winning streak your players might decide they'll get the points just by showing up and play a shocker. Watch the motivation widget during the games, any signs of complacency need to be stomped out at the next press conference.

*I think we didn't get the invitation to the reserve league, I always accept it, so I don't know why we aren't playing it... I thought we were

No fixtures usually means invitation was refused I can understand why could that happen, as it's yet another task/time sink to take care of, but if you dodge these things you can't be surprised results are inconsistent at best.

*What's the benefit of letting the bad sub-18 players go?

He doesn't waste your wages budget and coaches time. There's a whole book that could be written about youth development, for the moment chew through this : http://community.sigames.com/showthread....Youngsters

*I never talk with players . Only do it when they are unhappy (and the result of the conversations seems to be totally random). What should I say to them? What's the possible effect of these talks?

If they had a game of 7 or more - praise them. If they played under 6.5 rubbish them. If they are on a five game average of over 7, tell them they are playing good. If the coach told you they trained poorly, tell them you won't have it. Results? They'll start to like you, to the point of becoming their favourite personnel. Once that happens they'll respond to training and team-talks much better, they'll be more accommodating when talking money and they'll go along with most of your suggestions ( PPMs, tutoring ).

Well, since I can start and finish a season in a week, you can probably see that I'm not a good manager. Maybe I should stop with my cursing at the game and actually try to learn how to play it !

That September remark might be somewhat over the top, but yeah, once you give the game time and attention you'll get the results in spades. Or at least understand why aren't they coming.