Football Manager as a game has long been about learning and developing your own management skills. You won’t get far even as Manchester United if you don’t know what your are doing. When it goes badly and you don’t know what else to do, it is sometimes good to look around the internet and seek the guidance of others. I too have to seek advice and so I have put together some of the most useful guides from the Football Manager Community and ones I have wrote myself that will help you improve as a Football Manager 2010.
Tactics
Building Your Defence: Centre Backs & Defensive Forwards - You can’t lose a game if you have 0 next to the oppositions name. Many managers will want to keep it tight at the back, especially in the lower leagues. For a series of articles that I wrote at FM-Britain I look at how you can build your defence, not only made up of the two in the middle of the back four, but also defending from the front like Barcelona.
Tactical FAQ’s – Tubey looks at some of the most common problems that face Football Managers, this is a really good place to start if you are experiencing problems with your own tactics. Tubey at The Away Stand offers several solutions to your tactical problems presented in an easy to follow format.
Zonal Marking – This is not a Football Manager related site, or a guide. But it is a football site that regularly updates with analysis from all over the world of football tactics. Worth spending sometime reading their blogs, you can improve your own tactics if you can learn from the tactician of the real world.
Pass and Move is the Liverpool Groove – In the tactical and training forums on the official SI games sites you come across some gems. This analysis of the style of football played by Paisley and a long line of other Liverpool managers is detailed finely in this guide. I am not one for downloading tactics, but this post shows details so well how he has taken the tactics of the past into Football Manager 2010.
Tactical Theorems 2010 – the most comprehensive guide available. Tactical theorems is an eBook that will guide you through each aspect of creating successful tactics. From the basics such as explaining the features of the tactical creator, to the more complex and delving in the scary world of analysis of the match engine and statistics. The guide also comes with regular updates that will attempt to explain the tactics from the professional managers and how to recreate them Football Manager. When the book was released, I spent the time on my train journeys to and from work to get to grips with this epic but helpful book. As a result it improved my approach and skills in playing Football Manager, allowing me to have a much better gaming experience. From the team that had a major input themselves in the making of the tactical engine, they are definitely ones to trust.
How I Play against the Top Four – It is important to assess game tactics per game. They won’t require big changes, but minor moves in your strategy can have a big difference. Playing against the top four can be hard, but not impossible. Small changes to your strategy have allowed me to challenge top teams in the Premiership and if I do say so myself I don’t have a bad record against them.
Killing the rot, keeping your team on form – I wrote this article after months of suffering. I couldn’t pull my team out of a run that had seen Southport go from top of the league to missing out on a play off place by a point in little under 12 games. After looking around at forums and talking to people, I was able to turn my form around and get back on track. ‘keeping your team on form’ is definitely a post born from pain and what I learned from hard work and determination.
In-game Action
What Do The Touchline Shouts Do? – This is actually in the FM Britain TT2010 ebook, but it is also available to view on the mainsite. New to Football Manager 2010, we are all having to learn how to effectively use touchline instructions. Here you will find each instructions laid out in a brief well structured explanation of what they do. Newcomers to the game might want to use it as a crib sheet while playing in matches until they are familiar with the shouts themselves.
3 Steps to Hold The Lead – Probably one of the biggest moans I about Football Manager, players unable to keep leads, these players often blaming the match engine. Alot is down to common sense, keep yourselves tight and deal with an on slaughter of a team looking for a point at any cost. Another article written by myself, appearing on FM Britain, where you can find me posting a weekly tactical article.
Training
How to understand training sliders & Learning how to train effectively Two guides that go hand in hand with each other at Los Wonderkids. Training has been an area that many people have shied away from, it looks much more complex then it really is. ‘How to understand training sliders’ is a nice simple guide that will get to grips with the basics of training. Offering a system and set of rules that can help you better understand and create your own schedules. Although the guides should be merged together as ‘learning how to train effectively’ takes training into more detail with examples and a logical approach. But for a subject that can be simple, the guide is pretty long and may take some digesting first.
Miscellaneous
EDT’s, DDT’s, LNC’s and Chelsea’s transfer ban – an FM View post that was produced not long after the release of FM 2010, a time when the Chelsea ban within Football Manager was much debated. The article will take you through powerful EDT, DDT, LNC files that will help you manipulate your game simply. Add yourself, your own media sources or just stop your least favourite side from being able to buy anyone.
Notes in Football Manager – This article from The Away Stand is not a particularly well written post. But one that really got me thinking and changed the way that I play Football Manager. Using notes as is suggested in the guide I have been able to add a structure to the way I play the game. Regular intervals I will maintain regular tasks in order to keep my team performing well. Little tasks that sometimes can go forgotten as you play the game. Something of a really simple concept, but one that was hugely useful.
Motivation
Team-talks: If you are clueless, – Another gem from the SI Games forum an interesting and simple approach to team talks, taking a few things into consideration when going into team talks. ‘Bubbabaytuna’ explains his set system of motivating his own team. It is very interesting and uses San Marino (club team) as an example, using the system to help him gain promotion to Serie A.
How to make friends and influence people – Looking into one of the concepts that I wrote about in CPW. An interesting way to conduct your long term transfer policy. Building a network of friends with other mangers within the game to help give you an advantage in the transfer market. I have enjoyed alot of success, with the right reputation, using the favoured personnel to persuade players to come to my time and drive down prices in the market and contract negotiations.
Wolfsong’s Guide to Team Talks - Another approach to team-talks, what seems to be a common feature from many of these articles is the high regard for individual team talks. From this SI Games need to look into team talks as in the whole dressing room. Having the best effects coming from constant clicking can quickly get boring. Wolfsong makes his team talk decisions based on a collection of varied information, differing slightly from the Bubbabaytuna approach, but both proving successful.
Youth Development
The Benefits of tutoring - Showing off why it is good to have experienced, professional players at your squad and how these players can help tutor your young players. Having affects from squad gelling to the giving your young players the mental stability to play Football at a first team level.
