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Starting a Journeyman career, tips needed.


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So i've only been playing Football Manager for a few months now and already I feel myself bored with the usual Premier League, Championship stuff so have decided on starting a Journeyman career.

My main issue is I am far from an expert at this game and would like some general, or specific tips on what i should be doing and how I should go about my career. For example as I am used to signing top class players I really have no skill in judging whether a player is good or not in low leagues. I also have absolutely no experience in how I go about gaining cash for a club as I am used to being given at least enough money to survive without worrying about going into red.

So any of you have decent FM players feel free to throw some advice my way as I have no doubt I will be needing alot.

Thx in advance.

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It's an acquired taste, maybe, but you might want to consider playing the LLM way.

Personally, I always play this way. Pop over to the LLM forum, read the guidelines and either pick a team or start unemployed and off you go.

If your computer can handle it, run your game with loads of leagues - I'm currently running a game where I aim to win something with teams begining with each letter of the alphabet, from A-Z. Just for something different.

I'm currently still in the bottom league of Portugal with Atletico CP though.

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I would suggest some sort of widespread leagues so that you have a different experience across the world. I generally play a game where I start at the bottom and stick with one club (18 seasons currently) until I win everything I can.

For a more Journeyman Career I would load a range of leagues, include some of the top ones, but also some deep weaker leagues (Sweden, Norway, Northern Ireland) as this guarantees a job early on when you start out. I would suggest starting unemployed as this makes it a bit more of a challenge.

As for the players I look for in the lower leagues, Physical Prowess is key, these players (whether 35 or 19) can just destroy lower league teams, but they do also need technical attributes that are of an ok standard. I generally pick 10 attributes that I would like to be high in a position and then try to pick up players with around 100 total points or more (Physical weighted slightly more). Try and sign only players on frees and keep their wages low, also try to only give 1 season contracts as chances are no matter what at the start of the new season you will be wanting to replace a large percentage of them.

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I started in Wuppertal, Germany, 3rd division. It's a lot of fun rebuilding squads at that level.

Then moved on to Karlsruhe, Wolfsburg, ManU, so it could be a good starting point for you as well :)

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Same, playing the LLM way is by far one of my favourite ways to play the game. Me best ever FM save was from taking Farsley up till I bounced around League One jobs then up to the EPL with Norwich and then getting them to be runners up in everything. Try different leagues with different rules and formats. I have just started a unemployed save and ended up in Brazil, prett good format over there. Just keep bouncing around jobs every season or so mate until you think your really settled at a club and make a grab for every trophy

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For a journeyman or longterm career save, you need a decent spread of playable Leagues

All UK Leagues gives around a dozen or so

All European Leagues gives over a 100, different nations have different rules and/or promotion chances making a nicely varied savegame.

All American Leagues offers some really unique challenges (USA rules are wierd to me, and getting out of Brazillian 3rd division is a nightmare).

Start unemployed, set previous experience to Automatic/Sunday league, then either

- take 1 club all the way to the top

- spend 1-2 seasons at each club you manage

- stay at each club until your sacked/approached by bigger club

At low league levels you'll generally find and use "1 trick pony" style players, players who are good at 2 to 3 areas are quite rare in the BSN/S

eg: a stiker with good heading/jumping but poor finishing and dribbling

Pace, Acceleration, Decisions, Determination & Stamina are my CORE attributes in low league players along with 2+ Key position ratings, so for a defender i would look for at least 2 of the following tackling, positioning, marking, heading etc in addition to the above ...

hope all this helps & have fun.

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I have played CM/FM for like.. 16 years. This is my 1st time playing the LLM way and I must say it is the most satisfying way to play FM.

Depending which level you start. Having 70% of the attributes at 1 is pretty normal and any attribute over 10 is considered VERY HIGH. Even though some forumers and even the tips recommend good physical attributes for lower leagues, but I can't really tell the diff. I have a ST with acc/pace at 16/16 with good balance, agi and str. just 9 got composure and finishing and he scores a ton of goals. Alternatively, I have also signed some ex-INT players with very poor physical attributes but very good technical and mental and he performs really well.

Depending on which club you choose and how obscure your reputation. You won't have much choices when it comes for players. Most wouldn't sign for you.

Anyway the tips are...

1. Sign everyone you need on free, there are ton of gems who are free

2. Release all deadweight on free

3. Ex-Internationals are a good place to start

4. So are the youths being released by the premier league and CCC clubs.

5. You need a very simple tactic.

6. Friendlies make alot of money if you know what to do with it.

7. If you can get loan signings, get them for free. And they are pretty quality players which can totally demolish the opposition and win you the league.

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Thanks for all your advice guys, after twenty minutes i realised i'd rather watch granny porn than watch Blue Square potatoe heads running around trying to kick a ball. "Open goal!!!!.... oooh look a penny!"

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Thanks for all your advice guys, after twenty minutes i realised i'd rather watch granny porn than watch Blue Square potatoe heads running around trying to kick a ball. "Open goal!!!!.... oooh look a penny!"

That's life :D

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Thanks for all your advice guys, after twenty minutes i realised i'd rather watch granny porn than watch Blue Square potatoe heads running around trying to kick a ball. "Open goal!!!!.... oooh look a penny!"

Come on, you must love a good goalmouth scramble?

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I play with a majority of European leagues (though almost only top divisions on my 'main' save, I have expanded to a lot of the lower ones after that though) which I'm finding a great experience, despite a lot of failures. My career path at the moment is Ipswich-Viking-Zwolle-Metalist-Brugge-Panathanaikos-Fredrikstad and who knows where I'll be in the future. While not specifically a journeyman game it shows there's plenty of interesting times to be had if you run quite a few potential countries.

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Thanks for all your advice guys, after twenty minutes i realised i'd rather watch granny porn than watch Blue Square potatoe heads running around trying to kick a ball. "Open goal!!!!.... oooh look a penny!"

yeah lower leagues generally means lower quality players, but they can kick the ball AND the opposition players really well !!

At high levels its easy to find midfield players that can dribble, pass, tackle, mark and shoot.

At lower levels you will have midfielders that can dribble or pass, or shoot, or tackle & mark.

Tactics and the roles you give them need to take this into consideration, if you do that then they are quite adept at reasonable (for the level) football and getting good results. You can have nice flowing possesion based passing games even in the BSN/S ...... the ME is wierd like that.

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