Do you like this post?
When Football Manager 2010 arrived at my doorstep I had already got my plans in order for the games that I was going to have. One of the challenges that I was really looking forward to, mainly because of the new tactical engine my debut as a serious lower league manager side could now begin. So I started the game, carefully picked my side and went in with a little advice from a few more experienced gamers to get going.
How to pick a team
Being a Liverpool fan, and more used to the bigger teams in Football Manager I really didn’t have any clue of what the teams 5 leagues lower down would look like, I didn’t know where Eastwood, Hinkley or Bishops Stortfod actually where, never mind the players that actually where involved and the best players to pick up at the start of the game. So I needed to find a side that I could form a connection with, a team I would enjoy knowing a little more about and forming a bond. Being a Liverpool lad, Southport really stuck out in the Blue Square North as they are the doorstep a few miles away on the coast it helped that in real life they are top of the league as well, so they must have a decent side a more welcoming affair to lower league management.
Getting Going
The more you know about your chosen club before starting the better, Football Manager is famed for its ability to reflect accurately the talents of the players in real life. Knowing who the key men before even opening up a player profile can really give a picture of what might be your best 11 maybe, or the best way to play your team. I believe it is important to get to know your side, gain a little personality from what essentially on the computers game is a series of virtual dots and attributes. Giving a little bit of personality and human touch to these players may sound a little obsessive, but I don’t half spend a lot of time with them. When looking up Southport, I discovered their star player was a graduate of Manchester City youth team and a plight with moving from part-time to full-time which split the fans who formed a supporters group in protest. This made me even more determined to grab the team by the scruff of the neck, get them back to a full-time club once again and succeed where others have failed, giving a purpose and a mission to the game.
Obviously at some point I had to take a look at what my players look like on paper, taking in their attributes and watching how they played together as part of a team. Being the lower leagues you don’t expect your team to be the best footballers or being able to play with flair or having much technique ability so I decided to play simple football, especially due to my inexperience it wasn’t the time to start creating holes with outlandish request of my players. A rigid 4-4-2 was created to keep my players in position so that we could work from the back keeping it tight and frustrating the opposition, having a philosophy of if we have 0 next to the oppositions name we can’t lose.
The only other problem is inheriting a team over its wage budget, and the perils this can have when money is tight and much sought after to get yourself at least into the full time. £500 a month was the deficit and we could easily go along way £6,00 a year over could make all the difference to us at the bottom of the table when we are trying to splash out some wages on some fancy loan signings or to keep our star striker. My tact was to be tough ruthless when negotiating new contracts, even my top goalscorer was going to have to sacrifice a few pounds a month, they might not like it but it is crucial.
The story so far
It’s so far so good, many people believe that rigid football means that you can’t play an entertaining style. But I have found that keeping my players in set positions has allowed free flowing football, options to pass to when needed and then when off the ball we were in formation to frustrate and reduce space to the opposition. I quickly shot to the top of the league, my experienced keeper who I had drafted in on recommendation of my scouts in the new backroom meetings, managed to rack up a series of record breaking clean sheets with help of the back 4 things were going well, I thought that this lower league management saga wasn’t as hard as it has been made out to be. But don’t underestimate the power of bad form and the spiral you can get stuck in.
Sitting 9 points clear at the top, I was looking good going into a series of games with my closest promotion rivals, but that is where it started to unravel, losing to Hinkley at first and then a FA Cup draw against Chester City was a tough draw over too legs and losing out, morale dropped with each game and with a small squad this can rot within the team. I didn’t know what to do, my tactics had worked before, the player had played some fantastic football throughout the start of the season what can I do to stop the rot. A little more education was needed and nose round the community for some advice. A few changes to personnel bringing in a few fringe players that have a decent morale and mental attributes, a little more conservative in tactical approach and I was ready after a break to get back on the horse. I did so with a game against another promotion rival AFC Telford at home. We soaked the pressure up well, Telford were on top but weren’t going anywhere quick. Noticing a lot of space on the wings, I shouted to my players to exploit the wings and once I did so I was back on top and playing well, going 1-0 up really was a pleasant change for 70 minutes, I didn’t want to risk this 3 points and flooded my midfield, playing a Defensive midfielder to give relief to a tiring defense, it soon worked and our lone striker stuck the ball in the back of the net to seal the win. Until the 83rd minute, when the blue screen of death hit. The memory dumping that has plagued a few gamers is hit me and it hit me where it hurt, I nearly cried. I just got to hope that SI games find a solution sometime soon before I can’t take anymore.
Have you tried Lower League football for the first time in 2010 how are you finding your game? Have you set yourself a challenge of any sort and have you made any major achievements? Please comment below or tweet me @fmpundit. or join the discussion on twitter #FM2010
Why not read the second part of this tale
Tweet
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
This ‘blue screen of death’ you mentioned, is that where your whole PC screen goes blue? On mine it’s gone black, orange, purple, blue, and yellow, I wonder if this is the same problem? Haven’t been able to find anything about it to prevent it though, it’s really annoying!
Good guide though, and good luck if you’re going to continue the save!
Well I seemed to have solved my problem by opening up my computer and moving my RAM chip. But the blue screen of death is where an big error message in blue and white comes on the screen and it restarts.
I think the first thing you might want to look at is making sure that all your graphics drivers are up to date and direct X check the http://community.sigames.com as a majority of the common technical issues are outlined there.
Southport is a good choice, you’ll have a lot of work to do in order to make it a glorious team. I wish you the best of luck!
.-= Johnny Karp´s last blog ..Football Manager Story – Notts Co February 2010 =-.
I see you’ve gone as Southport- good choice. As a fan who goes home and away each week I started as Southport and was top most of the season. I then suddenly got beat 6-1 against Corby Town and my season fell apart. I finished 7th… With 14 games to go I was top. In the last 14 games I lost 11, drew 2 and won 1….
There must be a bug that when you start doing well you manage to get battered and not win a game again
I am looking forward to my second season hopefully I can keep them up this time, I have found a good formation of 4-1-2-2-1 playing attacking wingers.
I have been enjoying my saved game and cant wait to get back and start my 2nd season, I have become a little bit of a supporter now of the Southport team, I will have to get myself down to the Haigh and see a game especially as they seem to be doing pretty well now. Bit ironic that it was Corby Town that been the team that started your problems last season and in yesterdays game they will well and truely beaten 4-0.
WE ARE GOING UP, SAY WE ARE GOING UP
{ 4 trackbacks }