I'm not very good.......:-(

Hey folks, I have been playing the FM series from the beginning. I tend to float in and out of the game periodically throughout the year - as the football season has just started I thought I would kick my career off again over the weekend.

The thing is - I am not very good! I started my careers with Newcastle, had a decent enough start, got them promoted (via playoff) then lost my first 3 games in the Premier league then got sacked. Then I started a new game with Boro, 18 matches into the season - sacked again (I was 14th in the league).

Now, I am not putting this down to the game - its definitely my fault, but I'd love for someone to give me some pointers.

For example, I spend no time at all on training. Is training that important? I just leave it up to my asst manager to sort this out.

Any hints / advice would be much appreciated!

(Still love this game)

Training is important... more so in the long run as it helps develop players a lot. Training in the short term, i.e. 2-3 weeks does not help that much. Tactics is very key for the short term success. Making sure you have the right tactics for each game is very important.

Can I ask what were your transfers that you made with Newcastle?

If you don't want to put too much time into training schedules then look in the training/tactics thread and download some already made schedules which you can load up onto your game and assign players into the correct category.

Thanks for the reply - can you post a link to a couple of decent training schedules?

I signed Andrew Driver from Hearts, Ryan McGowan from Hearts and I think that was all.

Got to approach it from a real life point of view.

To start off with you need to find players who bigger, stronger and faster than you already have. This will bridge the gap of quality quicker than most.

The golden rule is you need to have at least one defensive midfielder in the team, theres no if buts or maybes on this it just has to happen.

Also need to get the blend between youth and experience as well, experience through the spine of the team (GK, DC, DM, MC, AMC, SC) has huge benefits when in bad run of form as your experienced players are generally more consistent in their performances.

Your younger players provide the spark that gets the team going so its worth keeping an eye on their performances then rotate them if they are not performing.

I'd suggest you invest some reading time in these forums, especailly tactics and training forum and Good player and Team Guide also. You don't have to download stuff unless you want to but there are many threads that will give some good advice on how to be better!

Try and utilise loans as much as possible. You can get some cracking kids on loan in FM. Such as Yannis Tafer or Danny Wilson. These players will help your team greatly.

One tip with Newcastle at least would be sell, sell and sell some more. Don't hold on to players such as Collocini, Smith, Nolan or Barton, they're all on big wages and will never get you into the upper echelons of the PL.

Thanks guys, I'm not sure what to do now........after I was sacked by Boro I went on holiday and applied for about 20 jobs - eventually offered the boss of Cheltenham town. Do I continue my failed career and try to get back on track with Cheltenham or start a new careers with a bigger club?

Training is fine to leave as it is until you have time to understand the finer points.

It seems the reason you get sacked is results so your first port of call should be on the field.

Presuming you buy good players that suit the position you are playing them them I would focus on tactics & team talks first.

I'll start with team talks as they are easier:

Use the match odds to help you, are you the favourite? heavily or only slightly? playing home or away? good or bad morale within your squad?

Be less harsh away from home and less harsh if morale is poor.

Pre-match if you are heavy favourites at home demand results, slight favourites "You can win", on a bad run or aren't the favourites "Good luck", save "for the fans" for rival matches or cup finals. Always vary your teamtalks, don't use the same one all the time less your team stop listening.

At halftime again consider how you are doing in relation to your pre-match expectations and how well the team is playing. If your ahead use encourage, pleased, delighted depending on how far ahead and how well your playing. Drawing similar to pre-match while if your behind disappointed, sympathise, angry depending on play/opposition.

After match is fairly easy gauge - how you feel. If you are pleased use well done, been unlucky use sympathise, played poorly use disappointed.

None is a relevant choice and can be used if the other options don't seem right, halftime seems to be when I use it most.

Individual team talks can be used to target certain players - For young/inexperienced players "no pressure" can stop them getting nervous "demand a performance" can be used for an underperforming first teamer while "Have faith" can help with poor morale. "Pick up where you left off" only appears after a good performance in the previous match while "expect better" appears after a poor performance - I tend to use both when available.

Tactics are a huge area and the best thing would be to read the TT&F guide but as a general guideline try to balance your team. You should have a mix of players on defend, support & attack and these don't refer to position either.

Playing two up front put one on support and the other on attack, with two in central midfield use one on defend and one on support/attack.

Maybe the best thing is for you to post up a screenshot of your tactic and we can then offer advice based on it.

Thanks guys, I'm not sure what to do now........after I was sacked by Boro I went on holiday and applied for about 20 jobs - eventually offered the boss of Cheltenham town. Do I continue my failed career and try to get back on track with Cheltenham or start a new careers with a bigger club?

I say continue, learn from your mistakes.

It will maybe aid you using a team where you don't know all the players in RL - You are then forced to judge the players within the FM framework.

i dont agree that training is important i never touch the training aspect unless its advised by my backroom advice to start them training on things and i have had success while doing this.. In all my years of playing ive never touched the training. Just left it as it is.

Training is fine to leave as it is until you have time to understand the finer points.

It seems the reason you get sacked is results so your first port of call should be on the field.

Presuming you buy good players that suit the position you are playing them them I would focus on tactics & team talks first.

I'll start with team talks as they are easier:

Use the match odds to help you, are you the favourite? heavily or only slightly? playing home or away? good or bad morale within your squad?

Be less harsh away from home and less harsh if morale is poor.

Pre-match if you are heavy favourites at home demand results, slight favourites "You can win", on a bad run or aren't the favourites "Good luck", save "for the fans" for rival matches or cup finals. Always vary your teamtalks, don't use the same one all the time less your team stop listening.

At halftime again consider how you are doing in relation to your pre-match expectations and how well the team is playing. If your ahead use encourage, pleased, delighted depending on how far ahead and how well your playing. Drawing similar to pre-match while if your behind disappointed, sympathise, angry depending on play/opposition.

After match is fairly easy gauge - how you feel. If you are pleased use well done, been unlucky use sympathise, played poorly use disappointed.

None is a relevant choice and can be used if the other options don't seem right, halftime seems to be when I use it most.

Individual team talks can be used to target certain players - For young/inexperienced players "no pressure" can stop them getting nervous "demand a performance" can be used for an underperforming first teamer while "Have faith" can help with poor morale. "Pick up where you left off" only appears after a good performance in the previous match while "expect better" appears after a poor performance - I tend to use both when available.

Tactics are a huge area and the best thing would be to read the TT&F guide but as a general guideline try to balance your team. You should have a mix of players on defend, support & attack and these don't refer to position either.

Playing two up front put one on support and the other on attack, with two in central midfield use one on defend and one on support/attack.

Maybe the best thing is for you to post up a screenshot of your tactic and we can then offer advice based on it.

Thanks fella, good advice.......I think I need to take time and really think about indivisual teamtalks rather than overall team talks (which I usually use)

If your in a league that you dont think you are strong enought to win games in week in week out I would play narrow and on the counter, always have a chance of a snatch and grab win!

in my opinion its mainly down to geeting good 0players, keepign them happy and tinkering with your tactics as the ciomputer adapts to yours. the great thing about this game is that there are so many things to fine tuen its very rarely one thing you are doign right/wrong

When I first played the new FM I started with Morecambe. Always think it's a nice idea to start with a smaller club with low expectations to get used to transfers, tinking with tactics and so forth. Most people are saying play with tactics and that gets a thumbs up. Always try to stick with your teams recommended formation - whichever one suits your own style best though I find is easier to get your head around.

Give your assman control over everything basically at the start and take it back option by option as you get more comfortable with the game.

i did terrible when i first started but since then i've learnt the tactics game and training schedules and i'm flying in my FM careers now

best success

oldham athletic ... 2 times premiership champions, uefa cup winners 4 times

vauxhall motors ... BSN to championship within 6 years

shenyang dongjin ... (current save) ACL winners, chinese super league 3 times

all this after i decided to be a bit more patient on the tactics side and training... it's worth it in the end trust me... you can get help from the tactics and good players guide too

i dont agree that training is important i never touch the training aspect unless its advised by my backroom advice to start them training on things and i have had success while doing this.. In all my years of playing ive never touched the training. Just left it as it is.

Same here and players still develop brilliantly.

Google Dan's Training Schedule, never think about training again.

I'm a beginner as well and in my second season at St Pauli in Bundesliga 2 I was having a heck of a time. I was 15th, my team was in mutiny, the board was threatening to sack me and my best player was unhappy because I wouldn't transfer him. I was playing a 4-5-1 with 2 DM's and was staying close in games, but with only 1 average ST I couldn't score to save my life.

The board said if I didn't get a result in my next game I was gone. I decided to completely upend my formation and changed to a flat 4-3-3. I won 4-0 in an away game against the 4th place team. Since then I have gone 11 games without a loss, won 5 in a row and am focused on keeping morale high. Made all the difference for me.

The key I've found is getting 2 really strong central defenders. They are far and beyond anything I had before and I didn't sell the farm to get them. One I signed on a free and the other was a 20 year old I got for around 150k. Having to not worry about my defense meant I could move my DMs up in the formation and could focus more on scoring.

Your mileage may vary.

Also, as someone else said Team Talks are very important! Find Wolfsong's guide.

Threads like this really remind me how good this community can be and also reaffirm my faith in people. All credit to the OP for holding his hands up and saying 'I'm not very good'. So many others would have started a rant thread where its always the games fault that it doesn't always do what they think it should (ie: them win all the time).

Threads like this really remind me how good this community can be and also reaffirm my faith in people. All credit to the OP for holding his hands up and saying 'I'm not very good'. So many others would have started a rant thread where its always the games fault that it doesn't always do what they think it should (ie: them win all the time).

Cheers dude, honesty is the best policy. Thanks to everyone for their comments.......just went on a 3 game win streak with Cheltenham... I'm guessing this is down to the individual team talks and a clear focus on tactics....!