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Tips on how to stay in the premiership


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I will give you a few tips for staying up that come from my experiences in Portugal & Italy with lower league clubs.

1) Search through the previously relegated sides - they will generally have a few gems which you can steal for cheap.

2) Concentrate on a strong defence, but play attacking football - I always focus my transfer funds on buying a good GK, and a couple of good DCs, fullbacks next if you can afford them. But instead of trying to shut up shop against the big teams in the league, go out there and attack them. Let your defenders cope for themselves, generally you can get good enough ones to hold them out and try to score some of your own.

3) Look at older Strikers/Midfielders - Yes I know you want to build towards the future, but for that first season you need to establish yourself, check out clubs near the top of your league and look at their 29-32 year old (now reserve) players and see if you can get them cheaply, otherwise look for similar Bosman signings, these players with experience at this level make a difference.

4) Praise your Players - Even if the result is a 1:0 loss to Man U, if it is better than what you would've expected then give them a few 'Did Wells' even for a loss, it will tell them that they can do it.

5) Most importantly is to target relegation games - Those against your fellow promoted teams, and those who finished 15th-17th last season. You NEED points from every single one of these games, draws away and wins at home. Anything from a team above 14th is a bonus so long as you can beat the lower teams.

Hope that can help.

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Pack the midfield, stifles the creative players. Worked for me anyway. The Prem actually seems a bit too easy to stay up in, points wise, I just stayed up getting a measly 34 points, 16th, 5 clear or Pompey in 18th.

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I'm afraid if you are 9 points away from safety with just 8 games to go it's too late to change things around, unless you are willing to employ a tactic which is more or less a cheat tactic, like the ultimo domination one plus the corner cheat added.

Good luck anyway.

:(

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I will give you a few tips for staying up that come from my experiences in Portugal & Italy with lower league clubs.

1) Search through the previously relegated sides - they will generally have a few gems which you can steal for cheap.

2) Concentrate on a strong defence, but play attacking football - I always focus my transfer funds on buying a good GK, and a couple of good DCs, fullbacks next if you can afford them. But instead of trying to shut up shop against the big teams in the league, go out there and attack them. Let your defenders cope for themselves, generally you can get good enough ones to hold them out and try to score some of your own.

3) Look at older Strikers/Midfielders - Yes I know you want to build towards the future, but for that first season you need to establish yourself, check out clubs near the top of your league and look at their 29-32 year old (now reserve) players and see if you can get them cheaply, otherwise look for similar Bosman signings, these players with experience at this level make a difference.

4) Praise your Players - Even if the result is a 1:0 loss to Man U, if it is better than what you would've expected then give them a few 'Did Wells' even for a loss, it will tell them that they can do it.

5) Most importantly is to target relegation games - Those against your fellow promoted teams, and those who finished 15th-17th last season. You NEED points from every single one of these games, draws away and wins at home. Anything from a team above 14th is a bonus so long as you can beat the lower teams.

Hope that can help.

Very good advice :thup:

though this is obviously directed at pre-season things to do...

I may add that you should look out to have a very strong central axis on the pitch. You need to good centre-backs, at least one very good MC (with defensive qualities if you just have one good player there) and one striker who guarantees you 10-20 goals.

If you are happy to take a slight risk then buy players by using instalments only. This way you'll have more money to spend. As long as you don't repeat this every year you should be fine as especially in the first year up in the Prem the boards tend to be cautious with the budgets. If you can spend 30m instead of 15m, then that should give you the decisive edge to be able to stay up and the difference in TV money alone will pay for much more than just the instalments which you still have to pay in the following year then.

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From where you are now, I can only tell you what not to do:

Slag off your players. Their morale is low, that will make things worse.

Make huge tactical changes from one week to the next. Your players will get confused. So will you.

I would try to grind out tedious draws but only by using a negative version of my standard tactics. This worked when I took over struggling sides in Norway & Turkey. A couple of 0-0's will give you something to build on.

Basically, I think you're doomed but good luck anyway.

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tight defence. if your opposing forwards are weaker in the air, encourage the wingers to play down the flanks (even if you show them on their stronger foot) and this means that the wingers and full backs can only put the ball into the air. vice versa for pacy forwards

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The good part of the Premiership is that you get an interesting amount of money through sponsors

I remember getting $27M with York in FM08, so if you manage to stay in the first season, you shouldn't find any problem that would impede your team to improve in the upcoming seasons, thanks to that money

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's ok :) In the 2047/2048 season save I had on FM09 with my beloved Lancaster City I had similar problems. After years in the middle of the league structure I finally managed to make it into the Championship. Took me around 12 years to establish myself in the Championship after yo-yo-ing between the leagues.

A little background info first;

First time in the Championship I suffered straight relegations into League 2, using instalments in the Championship cost me dearly as I got relegated two leagues which mean I wasn't getting as much income and my expenditure soared to almost QUAD my income which then resulted in administration and -10 points in my return to League 2. I also had zero transfer and practically zero wage budget. I could not attract any players for two years which damn, cost me big time I ended up back in to BSN. (The reason Lancaster were playable is because although I was doing DAFUGE's challenge I edited them in and played as them in the first season due to the fact their my local team) In League 2 I finished with 20 odd points which left me bottom, in BSP I finished bottom again with around 30 points. My first season in BSN had me 4 Million in the RED. The only reason I didn't get sacked was because I was a favoured personal and Lancaster chairman was luckily very very very loyal. I also had them as my favourite club. After two more years in BSN I was considering leaving as I felt I had taken the club as far as I could to the dizzy heights of the Championship :( AND it was my own fault the club was in this mess. As the season drew to a close my swansong was away against Morecambe (Also in BSN) The news bulletin read we were in the process of a takeover :D, We beat Morecambe 2-0 which sent us up and our debts were cleared. 4 Million seemed impossible to recover from but we did it and the rebuilding process began. Before I knew it I was back in the Championship and after 3 years in there deemed myself Established. Then came the play-offs. Destroying Fleetwood Town :S 4-0 in the final gave me my début season in the Premiership. Given 3 million to spend and minimum wage budget I was 4 points off with 6 games left. I stayed up... Although Liverpool :\ and Chelsea went down, both had 10 point deductions. The following season I had to beat QPR by at least 3 goals to stay up and hope Nottingham Forest lost to Derby. I lost.... 5-3. Then came the axe, I was sacked :( After so many long long years there. I'd seen two generations of staff, Countless player changes and also many, many Champions. AC Milan were on 19 European Cups, Munich 10, Madrid 9 :O. I was absolutely heartbroken and almost everyone of my staff except two left with me. My bastard first team coach who stayed took the job.

I Holidayed for 5 more seasons to see how they would fair and he got them back up first time of asking and top half finishes every season except one, including a Uefa cup berth. I didn't want the agony of seeing how they would fair in Europe so I took the save game out of the folder, put it on a pen drive and kept it in my safe until the day comes that I 1. reload FM 09 and 2. Modify myself back into manager but until then I'm happy as manager of Derby on FM10

Sorry to blab on but anyway, yes, tighten the defence as your main priority and make sure you pack out your midfield, worked for me for one season but not so much the next but when in doubt pack the pitch out.

I was debating whether to turn my incredible adventure into a story, what do you guys think?

Many Thanks,

DE-Z

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As some people have already said, target relegation rivals and home games. I even go as far as sticking out the reserves against, say, Chelsea away

You may get a tonking but at least you have a fully fit squad to play against more winnable games.

And look at average ratings in the players history - those who have done well fairly recently are likely to do so again

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I will give you a few tips for staying up that come from my experiences in Portugal & Italy with lower league clubs.

1) Search through the previously relegated sides - they will generally have a few gems which you can steal for cheap.

2) Concentrate on a strong defence, but play attacking football - I always focus my transfer funds on buying a good GK, and a couple of good DCs, fullbacks next if you can afford them. But instead of trying to shut up shop against the big teams in the league, go out there and attack them. Let your defenders cope for themselves, generally you can get good enough ones to hold them out and try to score some of your own.

3) Look at older Strikers/Midfielders - Yes I know you want to build towards the future, but for that first season you need to establish yourself, check out clubs near the top of your league and look at their 29-32 year old (now reserve) players and see if you can get them cheaply, otherwise look for similar Bosman signings, these players with experience at this level make a difference.

4) Praise your Players - Even if the result is a 1:0 loss to Man U, if it is better than what you would've expected then give them a few 'Did Wells' even for a loss, it will tell them that they can do it.

5) Most importantly is to target relegation games - Those against your fellow promoted teams, and those who finished 15th-17th last season. You NEED points from every single one of these games, draws away and wins at home. Anything from a team above 14th is a bonus so long as you can beat the lower teams.

Hope that can help.

Some brilliant advice here.

This is exactly whjat I did a few times and ended up being promoted from lower divisions, however Ihavent managed with a small club in the EPL yet, hopefully that will be my next challenge.

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I've always found that no matter what team I am in the prem, if i play an attacking 4-4-2 with AML and AMR, against big and small teams, i usually do well. Finished 8th in the first season with Burnley. I find if you always stick with an attacking, free flowing tactic you will do well against the bigger teams, who will also attack, thus opening up the game for you. I do tend to struggle against the likes of Bolton etc, who tend to defend more. That said I know that the players matter, but if you can find one decent winger and a decent striker, it seems to work.

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I've found that having a bruising defensive midfielder, set specifically to man mark their main central attacking threat (either playmaker or striker, depending on which is best) with hard tackling, can help shut down much better teams. They might get a sending off or two in the course of the season, but overall they'll win more points than they lose this way. Doesn't tend to work so much when you're going for Europe etc, but to kick a Torres or Rooney out the match can be extremely useful!

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I stayed up in the prem in my 1st season entirely by sheer luck. I was previously loaning 1 ST and 1 MC and those loanees basically carried me all the way from L1 to CCC to Prem in consecutive seasons. The moment I hit prem, the board gave me like 30 mil transfer kitty. I immediately splashed out like 18 mil on that 19 yr old ST. And 6 mil for that MC. My policy to continue investing in youth has never changed.

I was stuck at the bottom for like 3/4 of the season and suddenly at the last stretch of the season I had a run of wins and I ended up being 6 points clear of relegation.

Basically my thought process went like this, that 30 mil can be all used up, so long I survive, since the money from prem is alot and that money is negligible if I stay up. That ST sort of single handedly save my club from relegation. I have a non existent defence and it has been that case for as long as I can remember. The next season, some of my kids matured and I found myself new blood in several positions. The most notable being a totally amazing MC who really performs as a adv playmaker. 3 seasons later he became the World player of the year at the age of 21. He totally demolishes opponent and he has something like 2 goals 26 assists in 28 games. The next highest in the league is only like 12 assists or so. The only problem is that I concede around 45 goals a season, altho I score a heck load more.

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When you manage one of the weaker teams in the Premier Division, it's easy to get into trouble from the start. The squad is still not up to full fitness so you can't always play your best team, you can get key injuries early plus there's several teams that will turn you over and demoralise your squad. And let's not forget half the world wants your 2 or 3 best players which unsettles them and makes them want to leave - so annoying!! It's very easy to find yourself at the bottom of the table after 10 games.

But as others have said you must have a solid defence so sign up ageing pros for cheap and on frees with solid histories from the better teams. Goals can also be hard to come by against top defences so make sure you sign up at least one pro who has a very prolific record at a high level. I find top scorers from the lesser European leagues, young and old, who fancy a move to England are the best but ageing British aces looking for first team football are good too.

Makes sure you have a tactic that suits your best players/first team. That can take a while to sort out. You should then manage to string together a few competent performances that will keep you safe :)

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