"Muppet Manager": an exercise in Simplicity management.

This theory is not a TT&T idea, it is general, although future dvelopments in detail will appear in TT &T

I have been testing this weekend with some interesting observations.

The reason for this is simple, having absorbed a lot of the info in the T&TT forum I found that whilst the control given by all the slider tweaking adds depth to the game, it is frustrating to make a Gazillion tweaks and still not achieve the "expected" result. This game is surely more clever than that? So I have set out to prove that what I call the "Muppet Manager" role can be successful and rewarding...and fun.

The principle of Muppet Manager is that as manager you only make changes that are in all probabililty likely to have a positive influence on the out come. Sounds simple but this is the detail - it shows some lateral thinking was involved - maybe not so obvious after all.

1/ The debate about Press Conferences seems to suggest that they are frustrating & not very rewarding. After too long deliberately selecting neutral answers to all questions I have decided Muppet Manager lets his Ass Man do them all. I have found that he does give extreme views sometimes, not always neutral and the result on the team is positive.

2/ Team talks. The same again, the Ass Man says things that I would not have done but my experiments have had very positive results so unless I have strong feeling to overide him, or more likely overide a single player "Teamtalk", Muppet Manager leaves these to the Ass Man.

3/ Tactics/In Match. Whilst I envisaged using 442 (default tactics) with a few (3-5) graduated Defensive-to-attacking variations I have actually used the wwfan TT&T guide set of Def/Cont/Att/Stnd/ShutupShop, but this is not actually about starting tactics, it is about being assisted to improve the in match situation. In the game the Ass Man instructions, if responded to, seem to me to improve on pitch performance & get results. So using his feed back, change between tactic sets that you feel comfortable with or tweak within the selected tactic but always respond to advice, pro-active tweaking seems to me not to really achieve positively often enough. NB. Bad tactics dont work! I advise the wwfan advice is taken but defaults may be OK - THIS IS NOT ABOUT INDEPTH TACTIC BUILDING AFTER ALL!

All of the above goes against the view that the Ass Man is useless and it takes an assumption (which I feel is correct) that the Ass Man generally gives good feedback, regardless of his personal stats.

Two interesting things to note, having tried this at all English levels, League 2 seemed not to work very well but all other Leagues produced almost 100% records. Also, I have always used "Ex International Footballer" as my reputation for starting, I know this could cause expectation issues in a career game but it seemed that such made signing players easier & gaining player respect more posistive however in "Muppet Management" the "Automatic" option is by far the best. I have no idea why this is and I have tried to disprove it but that is my finding so best to go with it.

In due course I hope to set up a thread in TT&T which will walk through a Muppet Manager career.

My assman handles all press conferences -- and he rarely does anything that upsets the players. It's a good use of his time.

I handle team talks. I like to single out players for praise. For the squad, I am positive in my comments, unless the squad posted dismal ratings. That happens a couple of times a season. I find being positive improves morale far more than screaming improves play.

In my experience, a manager can become a victim of the myriad options available in the tactics screens.

I began with FM2006, I was a tactical novice, rarely venturing from the team-settings screens. My basic approach was attacking, with passing set on mixed. I began with a League 2 club, got them to the Championship and then took a job offer from a larger club because the first club's stadium size/finances prevented me from further upgrading the quality of the squad. Eventually, I was managing five Premier clubs before boredom set in. We won everything -- never changing tactics except to go defensive to close out matches. I have since learned that I benefitted from an an apparent out-year problem in FM2006: the AI does a rotten job restocking your opponents and you basically have a corner on the market for the top regens. Winning becomes automatic.

FM2009 forced me to look into tactics beyond the team-tactics screen. Like many other managers reporting in these forums, I struggled big time. I tried various detailed approaches discussed in the tactics forum. I finally found one that won my club promotion to League 1 in my fourth season. In my first League 1 season, I finished a satisfying 7th with that tactical scheme. Then I dropped off to 14th and 13th. The old tactic wasn't delivering, and new ones didn't either.

I quit this club and accepted an offer to manage a minnow that had just won a place in the Blue Square South. About this time, I read crouchaldinho's 4-4-2 approach to tactics. It was simpler than many of the others I tried. I used his principles to set up attacking, normal, defending, ultra attacking and ultra defending formations. Season 1, we finished 4th, my best first-season finish in any version of FM. Early on, I switched formations in an effort to counter opponents, venues and weather. Not far into the season, I started playing attacking exclusively -- with mixed passing. Part of this no-hands approach was totally ignoring the assman's in-match tactical advice.

In Season 2, I used this tactic/approach exclusively, except switching to one of the ultras when late-match circumstances required the change. We finished 3rd and won the promotion playoffs. In Season 3, I finished 3rd in the Blue Square Premier but lost in the playoffs. This was my best-ever showing in a post-promotion season.

I'm not sure what all this proves. But for me, sticking with one tactic can succeed. And cause far fewer headaches from tweaking angst. The players seem to respond to consistency. Another thing I don't do -- after doing it with my first FM2009 club -- is set instructions for handling opposing players. For me, this is just another over-managing trap.

I am finally satisfied with FM2009. Having stopped chasing the perfect tactic, I can concentrate on what I feel is important: keeping up squad morale by being a boss who rarely employs the hair dryer, finding good young players who work cheap and improve with experience and keeping fresh players on the pitch, especially in the midfield.

Crouchaldinho's Simplicity approach is worth a try for managers who have struggled chasing the perfect tactic. BTW, crouchaldinho recently announced in this forum his retirement from FM2009.

Sorry I seem to be missing the point of the Muppet Manager - it just seems that you're explaining how you're palying the game which involved letting the assman do as much as he can,t hen you realising that the assman isn't very good at doing it?

I have decided to do the Muppet Manager career game as Leeds Utd. From previous experience & judging others Posts about that particular job it is not as easy as it should be, look at the real L2 table!. To finish first with a great/strong team is fair but then there is Leicester.......and Peterboro & MK's....

Apologies if anyone missed the point of this thread. It is intended as a prelude to the career game Thread which will follow but to clarify, I am saying that by focussing on the essentials and by letting the Ass Man do as much as possible the Managers job can be easier (still to be proven) and more fun (that I am sure of already). You will need a standard tactic set to base your "career" on, I guess the defaults for the chosen formation will do (?) but I will use a 442 set drived from wwfans T&TT Thread in T&TF. If you follow that guide you will end up with a basic 5 tactic set that should serve you well.

Sorry, still not getting it.

So you're letting the assman do as much as possible and using a set of 5 downloaded tactics in an attempt to make the game easier and more fun?

Sorry, still not getting it.

So you're letting the assman do as much as possible and using a set of 5 downloaded tactics in an attempt to make the game easier and more fun?

Correct about Ass Man, and surely everone has a set of several tactics as standard?, a single tactic is unlikely to work. The tactics I shall use are not downloaded, nor did I indicate that they were. They are however created from studying wwfans T&TF document however that is the most irrelevant piece of the whole thread.

Not sure I could ever make the game "easier" but I aim to prove that it can be simpler to understand & respond to, and regarding "fun" that is relevant to the player. For me tweaking sliders a lot and not achieveing over expectation is less fun than keeping things simple and overachieveing, especially when you have the freedom to tweak away as much as you want once that sound base is set.

Interesting, because I find success it directly related to effort in FM09 - by micromanaging the media, training, contracts, tactics you put more into the game and it takes longer to play games but ultimately are more likely to win things.

You could pick a fairly simplistic 4-4-2 and let the assistant manager do most things and fly through seasons but I'd wager that you won't be as successful.

Sorry, but I still dont' get what you're trying to prove - maybe it's just me, so I'll wander off and leave you to your fun

Interesting, because I find success it directly related to effort in FM09 - by micromanaging the media, training, contracts, tactics you put more into the game and it takes longer to play games but ultimately are more likely to win things.

You could pick a fairly simplistic 4-4-2 and let the assistant manager do most things and fly through seasons but I'd wager that you won't be as successful.

Sorry, but I still dont' get what you're trying to prove - maybe it's just me, so I'll wander off and leave you to your fun

Good points, but micromanaging is not to everyone's taste.

Thanks for the feedback though.

Good job tiger; like CaptnPlanet I'm a micromanager, but I've been following those threads where there is a huge chasm between the anal-types like wwfan and SFraser (I'm one of them!) and simplistic fans like Hammer1000 and Rupal. There are many fans who crave the simpler approach, so if you get success you could prove pretty popular.

My instincts suggest that as a competent 'muppet' you should gain perhaps 70% success, as opposed to maybe 90% as a micro-manager. Let's see.

Good job tiger; like CaptnPlanet I'm a micromanager, but I've been following those threads where there is a huge chasm between the anal-types like wwfan and SFraser (I'm one of them!) and simplistic fans like Hammer1000 and Rupal. There are many fans who crave the simpler approach, so if you get success you could prove pretty popular.

My instincts suggest that as a competent 'muppet' you should gain perhaps 70% success, as opposed to maybe 90% as a micro-manager. Let's see.

Phnompen I think you are right, that is what I imagined as a percentile. The trouble is so far I really am just switching between the 5 tactics, it works but its not very interesting to read about I fear! I may just add the update as a lengthy Post in the TT&T stickied tactic thread, you know the wwfan one, as it relys on absorbing that brief as a basic. Shame that thread is a bit quiet nowaday, thats where the grumblers should be heading!