Lower League Must Do's

First of all i'd like to say i am NOT asking for what team to be or anything like that i'm just wondering where to start as i'm looking to start a season in either BSS or BSP. I have never started this low down and i'm wondering what kind of management approach I should have.. Do I treat it like I would any other club just with lower quality players? Is training and wages and staff super important?

If there is a thread about this on the LLM forum a link would be appriciated. I posted in here as there is generally more people viewing this.

If you have any suggesstions they would be appriciated.

Thanks.

Get a parent club. Get a good one. Learn to LOVE the loanees they send you. Then, loan others from a league or two below your parent.

Sign free transfers. Stay within your salary budget. Get as many home friendlies as you can without killing your squad. Money is everything...make the most of what little you have.

Tactically, don't go too direct. Your backs can't pass that well, and your forwards can't run off the ball.

It's difficult to say what kind of management approach to take to Lower League Management.

Obviously you don't have as much money so you'll need to find good players on frees, and rely on loan signings (players from local clubs are more likely to join you, as are those in lower divisions). A good assistant manager is generally important in the Lower Leagues but that of course depends on how good you rate yourself, and good scouts can find you some talented players.

As technical skills aren't so much in abundance down there, you want to be looking for players with good physical and, to a lesser extent, mental attributes. You'll definitely need to have a solid grasp of tactics if you want to move up the leagues at any pace: you can't really depend on players alone to do that for you.

What I would tend to do is to exchange any transfer budget into wage budget. I'm not a fan of paying compensation (and it can be quite damaging at LL level) so I tend to have a few players I don't need floating about. Besides, if I did need to buy a player, I'd need to afford his wages.

It's probably better to post this in here rather than in the LLM, as they have a specific approach to Lower League Management that isn't neccessarily what you'd take if you decide to manage a Lower League team, and they don't like it if people are posting in there but aren't prepared to accept those rules.

Ahh much appriciated. It seems like its going to be quite tough but I guess if i take time over tactics and transfers and well pretty much everything I should be ok.

Are defensive stats like positioning and concentration still as important and how much use would a lazy midfielder with decent passing be?

Are defensive stats like positioning and concentration still as important and how much use would a lazy midfielder with decent passing be?

1: Yes, but hard to find with pace and aerial abilities...if the guy has both, he won't be playing in your league long...

2: If he has decent decision making and some jumping/heading, he'll serve well...

1: Yes, but hard to find with pace and aerial abilities...if the guy has both, he won't be playing in your league long...

2: If he has decent decision making and some jumping/heading, he'll serve well...

LOL.. Fair enough. Well im off to go find my scouting goggles lol..

Be very aware about players released from Premiership clubs, as youngsters will be willing to join you, and will be class for you.

2 words - 'parent club'. That's all you need; in addition to them paying you an annual fee, you get a home friendly against them (even more money) and you can loan practically any player in their reserves / under 18s for free, for a whole season, many seasons in a row.

I was lucky in that I got Leeds Utd, and I got an awesome striker on loan who banged in 30 a season 3 years in a row. By this time I was in his favoured personnel, and my club was his favourite too, but when it came to the time that his contract at Leeds ran out, he turned me down to settle for a team in the league below for less money!?

I forgave him though 'cos I love him and signed him back a decade later. He still hasn't scored yet, but whatever, I'm made of money.

Have a read of my thread - FM09 Heathxxx Management Approach (Lower League Edition).

Although this thread is in the Tactics & Training Forum and does feature a tactic that I'm using, it's not specifically about the tactic, but more about an overall approach I adopt whilst playing as a lower league club. If you're looking to post in the LLM forum though, then it's not strictly adhering to the way they do things there, so don't use my approach if you're after playing a game that's following the LLM Forum guidelines snd/or posting about it there. I'm not knocking the LLM Forum, just pointing out that they prefer not to use things such as the player search (as they prefer to scout) or to manually scout through teams for players, etc... that I discuss in my thread.

Purely as an idea of what I've experienced in my own game though, it makes a good read and the discussion covers a number of factors that are important to consider, that obviously would not be discussed in the LLM Forum.

Good points, heathxxx, and good linkage.

My approach to ultra low league tends to be:

1. Make maximum use of my full-season loans. Make sure to sign players who will be clear starters with all loans.

2. Sign your best players and transfer targets to Full-Time contracts. This is crucial as many players at this level will be on Part-Time contracts. Don't overdo it, as Full Time contracts are more expensive, and try not to waste it on players who won't feature in your starting XI.

3. Get rid of any high-wage deadwood, however you can - you can't afford to waste budget on a player you aren't using. Free transfers out are addition by subtraction.

4. Use "targeted" training schedules - at this level, you may be better off training a player in three attribute groups very heavily than in eight attribute groups at a moderate level. That'll be up to you to learn and experiment with.

5. Don't focus as much on promising youth players as you would at higher levels .. you may achieve a couple promotions before that 7-star 16-year-old "comes good", and by that time his potential may only rate 3 stars against your shiny new reputation. (That said, I do tend to invest time in the 7- and 8-star prospects, because either they grow quickly enough to become useful in a hurry, or they attract the attention of bigger clubs and one lucky sale can keep us afloat for another year.)

6. Watch your Finances screen - it isn't just enough to stay under your wage budget .. you need to be very aggressive about keeping costs down to have any chance of breaking even. (For example, at a big club, its a no brainer to send your scouts right back out after every assignment, and to send every player to a Specialist if the physio suggests it .. but every scouting assignment has its cost, and Specialists are expensive, so you may want to re-think your "default" behavior.)

If you want good players for BSS/BSN with low wages, check north ireland players.

Thanks heathxxx and Amarog. Im going to start today and it looks like this season will take over my summer

Step 1 : Transfer list your highest earning players and get rid of them Asap to reduce your wages ( I transfer the whole lot )

Step 2: Ensure you set a high cup win bonus, this will make players work harder in games and get you some good cash, especially if you get a lucky FA cup run

Step 3 : Free Transfers are your friend. Load players from : France, Ireland, Northern Ireland , England without player naming I have found some of the best players in France and Northern Ireland. If you want any player naming PM me.

Step 4: Play a direct style of football that gets the ball to your strikers as much as possible, also throw as many men forwards as possible when attacking, I play a 4-4-2 with my Wingers opperating like strikers

Step 5: Sell your stars and replace them ! Even if its your fav 18 year old Regen, that 30k from Poodunk Utd will and can finance your LL outfits wages for a whole season !

Loans can and are nice but i prefer to have my own team and on my current save i dont think ive had a single loanee

Most important thing to do with your players:

EVERY PLAYER must have a minimum of Determination 10,

This will ensure they fight to the bitter end and dont crumble 1-0

Currently my Blyth Spartans team ( who start with zero cash) are sat in League 1 being worth about 1m.

Id also say that I 100% agree with Amaroq's list of tips other than loans, they are personal preference.

I guess because im a Norwich Fan IRL and we have 50 % loan players i bitterely hate the little mercenaries on mass !! :)

I always try to get a player who has high stats for freekicks and penalties(14 or higher) His other stats are not so important. This guy normaly picks up 15-20 goals a season for me which can make a huge difference to your final league position.

Im going to start now, thanks for the tips. Is there any point in loading other leagues or will all the players i could realistically sign be in my 'load all players from'? (I like to keep my loaded league as small as possible)

depends mate

I have, German, English , Scotish, French, Spanish , USA, Portugal and Holland running in the back ground

More so i can flirt with the big boys when my Blyth team become world dominators

Make sure you load all players from France and Northern Ireland

Id also say that I 100% agree with Amaroq's list of tips other than loans, they are personal preference.

Heh - found myself agreeing with all your points, too.

Determination is definitely a key attribute, esp. in LLM; I also focus on Work Rate, too.

I'm currently working on a theory that Natural Fitness and Stamina are more important at this level, as you're unlikely to have two "good enough" left wingers, so you really do want a guy who can play two matches per week.

I also suspect that atrocious First Touch is a real killer; I'm trying to find players with 8+ in my current save.

Your tactical tips are very good, too - at this level, no matter how much you'd like to play intricate one-touch football, well, sorry, this ain't the EPL.

You can also get a lot of mileage out of Opposition Instructions, just by:

- Hard Tackling vs players with very low Bravery

- Closing Down always vs players, esp. defenders and keepers, with low Anticipation, Composure, Decisions, and First Touch

- Tight Marking always vs players with very low Pace or who enter the match with low Condition

- Show Onto Weaker Foot vs players with "Right Only" or "Left Only" as their footedness

It takes me a minute before each match, but I think I win three to four more games per season off of that alone.

Play loads of friendlies against 1860 Muchen. They will accept 0 fee and will get a blue square north/south team £35,000 on any day except Sunday where it will get £40,000.

I played about 7 or 8 friendlies against them and sorted my bank balance for 2 seasons.

I'm in the Portuguese Second Division. I know it's not as low as the Blue Square for example, but I have a debt of around £1million after two seasons, partly because the board were very optimistic with the wage budget. I've just started the third campaign, and I have a couple of players who are worth decent amounts of money. Both are 29/30, and are worth a combined £270,000. Should I sell them, even though they are two of my best players, even though it won't really put a dent in the debt?

wow, reading this makes me want to play a lower league save.....I think I still have one with Redditch United

I generally start a game by holidaying for a season and picking one of the promoted clubs in the lowest possible league, whether in Europe or somewhere else in the world. I also have a few tips:

1. Starting out (Basically Season 1&2): Be willing to sign an old Codger if he has what you are looking for, but know you will be selling him on at the end of the season, or letting him go.

2. Fulltime contracts: You need your star players on FT contracts, without them you will end up with their fitness dropping over a season

3. Aim for a slow climb, target moving up 2-3 positions in the league each season. Season 1 target 3-4 places above the prediction in your info screen.

4. Targets: Unless I get desperate after that first season I try to target players aged 22-26, as they will still improve a little, but also are good quality.

5. Wages: Stay under wage budget always, will help you keep your job even if you fail at your target.

6. Changes: In January bring in about 2 players each time, only bring in a player if he is an improvement on your current stock, or if your current guy is leaving (Or you get a great offer). In July you can make a few more changes, but never more than about 5-6, any more will unsettle your lower league club even more than the top clubs.

7. Friendlies: Getting your players fit can be a major thing down at these levels. I have found that the best method is to use friendlies every 3 days of the pre-season, alternating two starting XI's this way you get them fit and they don't play full games. Getting closer to the end pick your top team and have them play increasing amounts 60, 70, 80, and then in the 2nd to last friendly they need a whole game.

8. Friendlies II: The second thing is to try and organise for big teams to visit you early on and then go meet some lower league teams, the morale boost of some easy wins is needed on the way into the season.

9. Physical Attributes: I like Stamina, the higher ones are always useful. Other than this a fast player or a strong player in a lower league can make the difference.

10. Defense: You need to get a good defense. In particular get a goalie and two central defenders. These are your first targets, after that you can build a lower league team around them. If they are 22 or so this is even better as hopefully they will improve.

Ok I think those 10 are a good basis

Hmmm....

Id agree with the Fulltime contracts and I tend to go for Strength as a mainstay physical attribute, just so my guys can not be beaten off the ball.

As for looking at a slow climb , i totally disagree with that.

Push hard.

I have played 4 seasons on my current Blyth Spartans save and have finished

1st

1st

1st

3rd

So 4 promotions in a row, doubt i will make the championship though as im played 6, won 1, drawn 4, lost 1

Promotion is very important for your team as it brings,

A better reputation ie more players want to come to your club

More money, this is a no brainer

Board more open to expansion. Ie: More money = higher wages available etc etc etc

I'm a big fan of getting a team together who have high physical attributes in the lower leagues and not so much other stats. If they are young they will ask for a low wage and also have the potential to develop.

The reason I always push a lot slower than others is the "Crash & Burn" Factor - Where your team gets too big too fast and then all of a sudden falls apart in a league.

Yes I realise you always want more money, and promotion helps with this, but if you aim low then the board is always happy with you and you can instead not worry about being fired, yes hitting promotion every season will do this as well, just find that the board start to get overconfident and that is your downfall, of course I also do not loan players, so I never have the player who is waaay too good for the league unless I have managed to get him to come to the club

yeh there is some substance to that.

Ive been lucky so far and havent crashed and burnt

If you want to play realistically, turn attribute masking on. If you want a challenge don't just sign players from exotic african countries as it makes the game a cakewalk and you may as well just go on holiday for the rest of the season after signing french/african/eastern european players who are brilliant quality but for some reason want to jet over and play and live in england for 90 quid a week.

brought up my Redditch save, and I totally forgot all about it........I got promoted in the first season and now even though I can't coax a transfer budget (400K pound bank balance), they expected me to get relegated so they love me. I also barely recognize my team and can't wait to get back into it.....too bad I have 6 hours of classes tomorrow

Yeah it looks like my pre season will take a few days at least lol. Im not sure what a 'good' stat for finishing is at this level though? Should I be happy with an 11 striker or is that decent?

I think il start in BSS instead of BSP aswell lol

I have to say i agree with some of the things here.

I always get rid of most or all my players that are from the original team, then i bring in a selection of players whom i know can do very well at the lower league level all for free. I have around 25 players loaded from nations with the large database. which is a great way in future seasons.

My tip is if you have a player a team wants from a higher league say 2 or 3 up then offer him out for £0 initial fee and maybe £100K-£500k or more after goals/games depending on the players position and or stats. this has worked wonders for me. i have been able to make cash this way and it has helped my club build new training, youth and stadium facilities. also bring in some new players.