How to have perfect Manager score (And take a BSQ team to the Premier in the process)

THIS GUIDE IS FOR 2010

download the guide here:

Vibe Thread

or

Direct Download

How to PWN the EPL Guide

First, here are my stats:

I'm not #1 in the world YET, that will come, but my manager stats are perfect and I'm 11 years or so into the game. The only managers ahead of me are Italy's coach and Spains coach....both who've won World Cups in the last 10 years....so it's not like I'm behind a bunch of nobodys at my club. I'm also really working on making up the $200M difference in my transfers....which was $600M 3 years ago. I'm finally starting to see the return on my investments....more on that in a minute.

Club/Player Loyalty

This one is pretty easy to get to 20...just stay at the same club forever and keep a few of your favorite players around for a while.

Domestic Player Bias

This one is something you need to worry about once you have established yourself atop the Premier league. One trick is to buy 4* English players and then loan them out and demote them to the reserves. I have about 15 English players (who will probably never see my First XI) on my reserve squad. They are all loaned out and developing into decent players who will be sold for quite a bit more than I paid...as you will see soon...

Financial Control & Transfer Acumen

This one is fun and frustrating to get to 20. As you can see, mine is at 20 and yet I have bought $200M more than I have sold. If you think about it, $200M is how much you have invested in your starting squad...which roughly translates to $11.1 million per player (including subs). That's not including players that are reserves (well, reserves that you will actually use). Considering top quality players sell for $40 million in this game...I would say that $11.1 million is pretty good.

Anyway, the key is to buy players when their value is LOW and sell when their value is HIGH. Economics 101. This actually works really well with Domestic Player Bias. You want to buy all the foreign players when they are under 21 and still have a lot of room to grow. Then once they hit their peek value, sell them. To achieve their peek value, you have to play them. So, what I do is I buy a youngster and loan him out and demote him to my reserves for a few seasons. Once they hit 22-23 they should be a pretty good player. Play them one season and sell them next season. This will **** a lot of your players off, but if you keep winning, that goes away.

You never want to sell an investment (player) that you aren't using because the player's value is tied directly to how much you use him.

Selling a player is kinda like fishing. Starting in June, offer him to clubs for $5-$8 million. Then wait. If you haven't gotten a reply by the middle of July, then lower the offer and try again. Once you get a response from a club, start raising the value. You can usually get $30-$40M for most players, so when they offer you $8M, counter with $30M. Most big clubs wont mind shelling out $30M for a young player about to enter his prime. But here's where the negotiating gets fun. When negotiating in the high prices, if they agree to $32M, then offer them $33M. If they agree to $40M, offer them $42M. The idea is this: if they accept your offer, counter and give them room to negotiate. If you come way over the top of them, they will just walk away. But if they agree to $35M and you counter with $36M and they come back and say $35.5M, then take it because that is as high as they will go. Notice that since you are increasing in small increments it will take some time...this is why you send out the offers in June.

Youth Policy

This one is something you need to worry about once you have established yourself atop the Premier league. It's fairly simple...find all the 5* English players UNDER 21 and buy them...no matter the cost. Then play them. For all 4* English players that you chose to buy, loan them out. And for all foreign 5* players that you chose to buy, loan them out and then play them one season. It should take care of itself.

How to build a dynasty

SCOUTING is the key.

The first trick is to NEVER use your scout. DO ALL SCOUTING YOURSELF. This will take some time initially, but once you get the flow, it will only take a few minutes every season.

View all players under 21 for all positions. Then manually scout ALL of them...again, first season this takes forever. If you are not at the top level of football yet, save your money. Buy only cheep cheep cheep players that have a lot of potential....don't worry about Nationality yet. Just get quality at first. Buy as many as you can. It will be extremely frustrating finding quality players who want to play for your club at the lower levels. The best way is to try to buy players that are unemployed....again, ALWAYS UNDER 21. NEVER BUY A PLAYER OVER THE AGE OF 21!!!

Do this until you finally reach premier level. Once you get up to the premier level, start to buy all new players...using that money you saved. Of course, if you already have quality players for the premier level, then you are in luck. However, most players that are premier quality wont want to player for you until your team is premier quality.

Once you reach premier and have stayed there for a year or 2, you can start to be a little more domestically biased. The trick to this is to continue scouting EVERYONE under 21, but only add people to your short list if they are English. That means you have to go click "scout" then go click "shortlist delist" on a ton of players. What I did was completely clear my shortlist one year and then sort by under 21's and view their nationality and then go add every single English player to my shortlist. From this point on, your shortlist will only include English players, which makes it very easy to search for the 5* potential ones (since you can't view nationality and potential at the same time).

Remember, NEVER SEND YOUR SCOUT OUT TO SCOUT PLAYERS AUTOMATICALLY. The reason is this: it removes all your previous scout reports! Your scout reports update automatically (in the search view at least) so you should never need to scout a player twice. Besides, once you have all of the players scouted one year (this usually fluctuates between 70-100 pages of players under 21) then when new players are generated, they will be easy to find because they won't have a scouting report. Most new players come in in June - September, so spend those months scouting...it's easier to delist all foreign players at this point as well.

Here is one more piece of advice for scouting: If you see a foreign player with 5* potential (NO LESS) whos value is under $2 Mil, go ahead and make an offer for him. The reason is that $2 Mil investment can return you $40 Mil in the transfer market!! Like this guy...

I bought him from Porto in 2015 for $1.15 million and sold him 5 years later for $41 million!! That's a 3378% return on investment!!!!! And he's just one of the MANY players I've been receiving my returns on recently. This guy was actually one of my IDEAL Central Defenders, and it was really hard to let go of this guy. He is one of the best in the game, but alas, he is not English and English CD's are much easier to find than English GK and English Full backs.

TACTICS

Pick a formation and stick with it. Actually, just pick this:

It works and it has taken me to the top. Basically these are the tactics I take into every game. If in game and I have a ton of offsides by halftime (like 10 or so), then I'll change "Men Behind Ball". But that's really all I change on tactics.

How to build your team

FIRST: I suggest only using players that are NATURAL in each position. You will get more out of them and they can play to their full potential. Most players will be able to play another position of two, but for the sake of this guide, I am referring to a players NATURAL position only.

Keeper - FIRST PRIORITY

Get yourself the next World Class Keeper. Don't ever worry about nationality for your keeper. Find a keeper and stick with him through thick and thin. At the premeir level, you will hardly ever see 6+ potential players...so if you see a 5 star potential keeper who is under $1.5 mil, then BUY HIM. For some reason, most keepers are foreigners....which means that most top level keepers will be extremely cheep. I'm talking $50K-$1.5 Mil cheep. For a World Class Keeper, that is an obvious STEAL.

Of course, if you see an English Keeper who has 5 Star potential, BUY HIM...I don't care how much the cost! I'm 11 years into my game and I have found ONE 5 star potential English keeper.

Here is my keeper:

When looking for a keeper to start, go for Aerial, Reflexes, Agility, Strength. It's a bonus if his Positioning, Technique (anything above 10 is good for GK), and Handling are above 15 as well. Of course, the more green, the better. This guy is still developing (although he the coach report usually shows him playing at 5* already), but he is already one of the best in the world and the first choice keeper for Brazil at 22!

Center Defense - Second Priority

I don't care what tactics you use, the Center Defense is the most important player on the defensive line. Here are my 2 CD's:

Notice How they complement each other...one is good at getting in position and winning headers while the other is good at muscling the ball away from defenders. IDEALLY I would like both to be at least decent at both, but that is hard to find...especially when you are limited to English players. However, If I could clone Darren Richards, I would be fine with that. The key stats for BOTH CD's are Tackling, Positioning, Strength, Stamina, and Teamwork. Especially Teamwork if you are going to play the offside trap. Anything less than 15 can hurt the team if you're using the offside trap (which works quite well I might say).

Fullbacks - Fourth Priority

Quality fullbacks can make up for your wide midfielders on offense, which is why I have them at a higher priority than them. If you ever find an English DL or DR with 5* potential, BUY HIM NO MATTER THE COST. In fact, if you can find any player who is natural DL/DR and has 5* potential, I would buy him. These guys aren't as common as CDs.

Here are my two:

Both of these players have a weakness. Forster doesn't have Pace and Schroder doesn't have Stamina. However, both of these weakness are easily overcome. Schroder does need a sub mid game most of the time, but that is fine because it allows me to develop another DL. Problem is, there aren't many with 5* potential out there...

When looking for a Fullback, look for Tackling, Teamwork, Crossing, Stamina, Decisions, Positioning, Strength, Aggression...in that order. Don't worry about heading for these guys because they won't be fighting for headers with the wingers very often (and most wingers suck at heading anyway). Dribbling is always a plus, as is Movement and Pace. These guys are on an island out there trying to prevent the crosses...which is why they need to be able to muscle the ball from ANYONE (requires elite strength and Tackling). Of course, they need the teamwork bc of the offsides trap. Crossing/Passing is so they can be useful on offense.

Central Midfielders - Third Priority

These guys are your creators. The offense runs through them. Without them, you do not score. It helps to either find 2 guys who are amazing all around, or pair one defensive with one offensive midfielder.

Here are my two:

Fairclough is my boy. That guy will be playing for me till hes 60 years old...or retires. Creativity doesn't change much, so when you find a guy who is a 20 in Creativity, you keep him.

Look for: Creativity, Passing, Decisions, Dribbling, Technique, Crossing, Movement, and Heading (10+ only). Of course, all of their traits needs to be 10 or higher. All of them. Higher Stamina is always a plus so you don't have to sub them out as much. Of course, subing them out means you can keep developing new guys

Wide Midfielders - 5th Priority

Yup, these guys are a bonus to you squad. They aren't as important as your Fullbacks, but they can greatly benefit your fullbacks on the offensive end. They aren't as important as your CMs either, but again, these guys are you wingers, your attack pieces. These guys win games for you when it comes down to it. I'm quite proud of my 2 wingers:

DRIVER IS A BEAST. Driver is obviously the stud of my team of studs. Like Fairclough, he will be on my team for a loooooooooong time....and he's only 23!! Rose isn't aggressive, but who cares? The guy is LETHAL from the wings! He has the pace to burn all but the fastest fullbacks and the creativity/crossing to feed my strikers. Both of these guys can play in the middle too, although not naturally, which really gives me flexibility on who I pick as my subs.

Look for Crossing, Passing, Dribbling, Technique & Stamina. Creativity has to be 15+. Of course, these guys really need to be able to do everything. Having a 10+ in Header is a bonus (especially if they are going to play the CM as well at times), as well as 15+ Pace.

Striker - 6th Priority

Most people say go out and buy a striker after a keeper, but honestly, anyone can put the ball in the net with Midfielders like mine. These guys are always expensive, but in reality, these guys are just the cherry on top of the ice cream. They are great if you have a stud, but not necessary. Of course, sometimes a striker is the only thing that separates 2 Top Quality clubs. Especially in the Champions league. A lot of people go for the smaller, quicker and more technical guys. I say, go for the BIG BOYS. Especially in the Premier league. These guys need to be able to win those headers coming in from the wings. They need to be able to out muscle the big CDs as well. While there are many quality strikers, there aren't many quality big English strikers. Here are my guys:

I rotate these guys in bc I'm phasing Rizzo out. Rizzo just isn't strong enough for me....not saying that he isn't bad. I'll be able to fetch a nice return for that guy WHO I GOT ON A FREE TRANSFER!

Barton is my future star. He will develop into the ideal striker, although he is a year or 2 off. And Schulz, well, Schulz has won Premier Division Player of the Year for 3 of the past 4 years!

Look for Shooting, Heading, Dribbling, Technique, Strength, Movement, Pace, and Stamina. It's always nice to have Aggression, Passing, Creativity, and Teamwork (I like teamwork for everyone...it just makes sense for the whole team to have good teamwork).

Anyway, thats how I took Oxford United to the top and started dominating the league.

Excellent work and your scouting system is defo something im going to use. Just to point out you dont mention your formation, just the team instructions, if its something other than 433 i will be intrested in trying. I recognise some of your Regens, Andrew Driver is David Beckham, Darren Rose Is Giggs, Will Fairclough looks like Scholes, and Scott Lowe is Stevie G.

Again good work mate!!

Excellent work and your scouting system is defo something im going to use. Just to point out you dont mention your formation, just the team instructions, if its something other than 433 i will be intrested in trying. I recognise some of your Regens, Andrew Driver is David Beckham, Darren Rose Is Giggs, Will Fairclough looks like Scholes, and Scott Lowe is Stevie G.

Again good work mate!!

Ahhh thanks, I forgot to add that! I'll fix it...anyway, I thought there weren't Regens in the game anymore. I thought it was all completely made up players now (newgens)?

You've clearly spent ages doing this - its ace! Just out of interest, do you give your players any specific instructions, or just stick to the defaults, and just change the team instructions?

You've clearly spent ages doing this - its ace! Just out of interest, do you give your players any specific instructions, or just stick to the defaults, and just change the team instructions?

On the iPhone, you can't give any specific instructions yet. The photos I posted under tactics are the only instructions you can give them

FANTASTIC write up - might I suggest you make that into a word document or similar and ask a fan-site to mount it for download?

I have a word Doc. Just gotta find a site that wants to host it...

You can upload it to sites such as mediafire, filefront and megaupload. btw nice guide mate.

Didnt read it all though but from what i have read it looks decent. Im gonna try with a bsp team as soon as i get SD from my huddersfield game.

Email it to me (marc.vaughan@sigames.com) and I'll try and help find somewhere to host it if you want - make sure you put your name (or tag or whatever however you want to be known) on it and I'll make sure thats retained if I can find anyone to take it.

Boom. Done and Done.

This is amazing. Do you think you could post some more screenshots? Some of those players are the best i've ever seen on an iPhone version honestly.

I LOVE reading through other people's seasons and careers, ESPECIALLY if there's screenshots.

Compliments to you my good friend, keep themc oming.

This is amazing. Do you think you could post some more screenshots? Some of those players are the best i've ever seen on an iPhone version honestly.

I LOVE reading through other people's seasons and careers, ESPECIALLY if there's screenshots.

Compliments to you my good friend, keep themc oming.

I'll post a few more, although, I'm not sure what else to post? Maybe some of my key bench players? Some promising youngsters?

Here are a few key bench players I have:

When looking for bench players, I like guys who play multiple positions. These multiple positions give me flexibility to survive injury scares...in fact, my two main bench players are almost more important to the success of my team than my starters!

Here is my main midfielder/forward sub Harry Hoyte....HE PLAYS THE ENTIRE MIDFIELD NATURALLY!! And he can even play striker, although he isn't near as effective. This one guy covers over half my team!

And my other stud bench player Wes Jackson....He only plays the right D naturally (which isn't common in itself), but he is accomplished at every position except striker and goalie.

With Jackson and Hoyte, I have my entire field covered incase of injury! All I need is a goalie sub!

Here are all of my prospects on my reserves team. Most of these guys will never make my squad and will be sold for profit. However, there are a few gems in here, most notably Cole Pritchard and Alan McDonald. These are my future midfielders. I've got a ton of striker prospects as well...and that's good because strikers sell for a ton. Other than Matty Barton (whom I've already posted above) I don't really have any perfect English guys. So I've had to dip into the foreign market to find a few.

Notice that MacDonald and Pritchard are both only 3/5 stars....meaning they have a lot of room to develop. But look at their stats already....man, they could be the next Fairclough and Driver!

Of my striker prospects, my English guys with potential are Townsend and Howell.

However, Howell doesn't have the ability to challenge in the air. He may play for me, but only if injuries force the issue. Townsend on the other hand can develop a little more strength and header, he might be a future starter. However, I can see Townsend becoming another quality bench player because he plays a lot of positions. He actually would mesh well with Hoyte and Jackson because he is a natural striker while Hoyte is not.

Here are my 2 foreign guys who look like they could be stars for my team...

The thing is, I would take Mohamed over Longo because of his aggression. I want my strikers to be extremely aggressive...it works with my all out attacking style of play.

Nice work, I don't agree with bits of it due to personal preference but it is great. Well done .

Brilliant post, however the BSQ part was irrelevant in my case and you seem a bit obsessed!

First, here are my stats:

I'm not #1 in the world YET, that will come, but my manager stats are perfect and I'm 11 years or so into the game. The only managers ahead of me are Italy's coach and Spains coach....both who've won World Cups in the last 10 years....so it's not like I'm behind a bunch of nobodys at my club. I'm also really working on making up the $200M difference in my transfers....which was $600M 3 years ago. I'm finally starting to see the return on my investments....more on that in a minute.

Club/Player Loyalty

This one is pretty easy to get to 20...just stay at the same club forever and keep a few of your favorite players around for a while.

Domestic Player Bias

This one is something you need to worry about once you have established yourself atop the Premier league. One trick is to buy 4* English players and then loan them out and demote them to the reserves. I have about 15 English players (who will probably never see my First XI) on my reserve squad. They are all loaned out and developing into decent players who will be sold for quite a bit more than I paid...as you will see soon...

Financial Control & Transfer Acumen

This one is fun and frustrating to get to 20. As you can see, mine is at 20 and yet I have bought $200M more than I have sold. If you think about it, $200M is how much you have invested in your starting squad...which roughly translates to $11.1 million per player (including subs). That's not including players that are reserves (well, reserves that you will actually use). Considering top quality players sell for $40 million in this game...I would say that $11.1 million is pretty good.

Anyway, the key is to buy players when their value is LOW and sell when their value is HIGH. Economics 101. This actually works really well with Domestic Player Bias. You want to buy all the foreign players when they are under 21 and still have a lot of room to grow. Then once they hit their peek value, sell them. To achieve their peek value, you have to play them. So, what I do is I buy a youngster and loan him out and demote him to my reserves for a few seasons. Once they hit 22-23 they should be a pretty good player. Play them one season and sell them next season. This will **** a lot of your players off, but if you keep winning, that goes away.

You never want to sell an investment (player) that you aren't using because the player's value is tied directly to how much you use him.

Selling a player is kinda like fishing. Starting in June, offer him to clubs for $5-$8 million. Then wait. If you haven't gotten a reply by the middle of July, then lower the offer and try again. Once you get a response from a club, start raising the value. You can usually get $30-$40M for most players, so when they offer you $8M, counter with $30M. Most big clubs wont mind shelling out $30M for a young player about to enter his prime. But here's where the negotiating gets fun. When negotiating in the high prices, if they agree to $32M, then offer them $33M. If they agree to $40M, offer them $42M. The idea is this: if they accept your offer, counter and give them room to negotiate. If you come way over the top of them, they will just walk away. But if they agree to $35M and you counter with $36M and they come back and say $35.5M, then take it because that is as high as they will go. Notice that since you are increasing in small increments it will take some time...this is why you send out the offers in June.

Youth Policy

This one is something you need to worry about once you have established yourself atop the Premier league. It's fairly simple...find all the 5* English players UNDER 21 and buy them...no matter the cost. Then play them. For all 4* English players that you chose to buy, loan them out. And for all foreign 5* players that you chose to buy, loan them out and then play them one season. It should take care of itself.

What do you do about training? do you leave as is or do you devise your own training schedules?

Also, how do i find my reserve team page? thanks

You've insipred me to start an Oxford game of my own! Congratulations

What do you do about training? do you leave as is or do you devise your own training schedules?

Also, how do i find my reserve team page? thanks

Training is simple. I alter the "General" schedule to be intensive on EVERYTHING except Goalkeeping. I alter the "Goalkeeping" schedule to be intensive on EVERYTHING except attacking and defensive. From this point, when a player complains about the schedule I just move them to a different schedule. I leave all the other schedules untouched.

The reserve team page isn't easy to find....go to "Club" > "Info" and then click the name of your second team at the top.

You've insipred me to start an Oxford game of my own! Congratulations

Oxford aren't bad to start with. You can get to primer level pretty quickly. Oh, and try to sign Milovich, he's a free agent at the beginning of the game and if he is granted a work permit, he will be on your squad until you get to primer.

Training is simple. I alter the "General" schedule to be intensive on EVERYTHING except Goalkeeping. I alter the "Goalkeeping" schedule to be intensive on EVERYTHING except attacking and defensive. From this point, when a player complains about the schedule I just move them to a different schedule. I leave all the other schedules untouched.

The reserve team page isn't easy to find....go to "Club" > "Info" and then click the name of your second team at the top.

http://www.footballmanagerfanboys.net/discussion/topic/691-intensive-training/

Great thread. It was a very interesting read.

However a lot of your tips seem to be about your team when you are already got yourself in a good position (looks like 2020 from the screen shots). Some more info about what you did at the very start of the game when you are in the BSQ.

Did you start by sticking with the players you already had for a season or two and then gradually replace them? Or did you try to sell a lot of players from the start and replace them straight away? Or does this ruin team spirit?

Either way it has encouraged me to start a new game. But I think I will go as AFC Wimbledon

It will probably be harder than Oxford to begin with but I do have a soft spot for them. Especially as SI are their shirt sponsors

How to build a dynasty

SCOUTING is the key.

The first trick is to NEVER use your scout. DO ALL SCOUTING YOURSELF. This will take some time initially, but once you get the flow, it will only take a few minutes every season.

View all players under 21 for all positions. Then manually scout ALL of them...again, first season this takes forever. If you are not at the top level of football yet, save your money. Buy only cheep cheep cheep players that have a lot of potential....don't worry about Nationality yet. Just get quality at first. Buy as many as you can. It will be extremely frustrating finding quality players who want to play for your club at the lower levels. The best way is to try to buy players that are unemployed....again, ALWAYS UNDER 21. NEVER BUY A PLAYER OVER THE AGE OF 21!!!

Do this until you finally reach premier level. Once you get up to the premier level, start to buy all new players...using that money you saved. Of course, if you already have quality players for the premier level, then you are in luck. However, most players that are premier quality wont want to player for you until your team is premier quality.

Once you reach premier and have stayed there for a year or 2, you can start to be a little more domestically biased. The trick to this is to continue scouting EVERYONE under 21, but only add people to your short list if they are English. That means you have to go click "scout" then go click "shortlist delist" on a ton of players. What I did was completely clear my shortlist one year and then sort by under 21's and view their nationality and then go add every single English player to my shortlist. From this point on, your shortlist will only include English players, which makes it very easy to search for the 5* potential ones (since you can't view nationality and potential at the same time).

Remember, NEVER SEND YOUR SCOUT OUT TO SCOUT PLAYERS AUTOMATICALLY. The reason is this: it removes all your previous scout reports! Your scout reports update automatically (in the search view at least) so you should never need to scout a player twice. Besides, once you have all of the players scouted one year (this usually fluctuates between 70-100 pages of players under 21) then when new players are generated, they will be easy to find because they won't have a scouting report. Most new players come in in June - September, so spend those months scouting...it's easier to delist all foreign players at this point as well.

Here is one more piece of advice for scouting: If you see a foreign player with 5* potential (NO LESS) whos value is under $2 Mil, go ahead and make an offer for him. The reason is that $2 Mil investment can return you $40 Mil in the transfer market!! Like this guy...

I bought him from Porto in 2015 for $1.15 million and sold him 5 years later for $41 million!! That's a 3378% return on investment!!!!! And he's just one of the MANY players I've been receiving my returns on recently. This guy was actually one of my IDEAL Central Defenders, and it was really hard to let go of this guy. He is one of the best in the game, but alas, he is not English and English CD's are much easier to find than English GK and English Full backs.

TACTICS

Pick a formation and stick with it. Actually, just pick this:

It works and it has taken me to the top. Basically these are the tactics I take into every game. If in game and I have a ton of offsides by halftime (like 10 or so), then I'll change "Men Behind Ball". But that's really all I change on tactics.

How to build your team

FIRST: I suggest only using players that are NATURAL in each position. You will get more out of them and they can play to their full potential. Most players will be able to play another position of two, but for the sake of this guide, I am referring to a players NATURAL position only.

I've scouted about 730 players but it only comes back with some feedback for some of the players and it doesn't come back with a scout rating either. What am i doing wrong? also when you do an player search and you see players in green, does that mean they are in your shortlist or does it mean that they are in your shortlist and being scouted? Thanks

I've scouted about 730 players but it only comes back with some feedback for some of the players and it doesn't come back with a scout rating either. What am i doing wrong? also when you do an player search and you see players in green, does that mean they are in your shortlist or does it mean that they are in your shortlist and being scouted? Thanks

Did you scout them all in one go? I've found it will only let you scout so many players at a time. Not sure what the limit is but once you hit it, when you press the scout button, were as it would normally disappear to indicate that you are scouting that player, the button remains in place. However it still adds the player to your shortlist as usual so it's easy to think that you are scouting the player.

If this happens you just have to wait until you scout comes back with a few reports and then add a few more. To find players that you think you are scouting but aren't, I normally just go to my short list, change the view to the scout report ratings view and find players that haven't got a rating yet and double check they are being scouted.

Hope that helps / makes sense!

Did you scout them all in one go? I've found it will only let you scout so many players at a time. Not sure what the limit is but once you hit it, when you press the scout button, were as it would normally disappear to indicate that you are scouting that player, the button remains in place. However it still adds the player to your shortlist as usual so it's easy to think that you are scouting the player.

If this happens you just have to wait until you scout comes back with a few reports and then add a few more. To find players that you think you are scouting but aren't, I normally just go to my short list, change the view to the scout report ratings view and find players that haven't got a rating yet and double check they are being scouted.

Hope that helps / makes sense!

That makes sense but how do i check if the players are being scouted or not? Thanks

That makes sense but how do i check if the players are being scouted or not? Thanks

If you click on the player and you can scout them then they aren't being scouted. Simple as that.

http://www.footballmanagerfanboys.net/discussion/topic/691-intensive-training/

yeah, thats exactly what I did. I'm sure its an obvious common training schedule.

Great thread. It was a very interesting read.

However a lot of your tips seem to be about your team when you are already got yourself in a good position (looks like 2020 from the screen shots). Some more info about what you did at the very start of the game when you are in the BSQ.

Did you start by sticking with the players you already had for a season or two and then gradually replace them? Or did you try to sell a lot of players from the start and replace them straight away? Or does this ruin team spirit?

Either way it has encouraged me to start a new game. But I think I will go as AFC Wimbledon

It will probably be harder than Oxford to begin with but I do have a soft spot for them. Especially as SI are their shirt sponsors

When I started the game, I found that the best players were usually foreigners that were free agents. I tried to sign as many of those as possible each season. Most good players won't want to play for you until you reach premier level. I tried to replace all of my old players with young promising players.

When I started the game, I found that the best players were usually foreigners that were free agents. I tried to sign as many of those as possible each season. Most good players won't want to play for you until you reach premier level. I tried to replace all of my old players with young promising players.

Cool thanks. So did you only start looking for promising under-21 players once you had already built a half decent team, or do you still do this from the start?

Training is simple. I alter the "General" schedule to be intensive on EVERYTHING except Goalkeeping. I alter the "Goalkeeping" schedule to be intensive on EVERYTHING except attacking and defensive. From this point, when a player complains about the schedule I just move them to a different schedule. I leave all the other schedules untouched.

http://www.footballmanagerfanboys.net/discussion/topic/691-intensive-training/

Does this not go against the information in Marc's post regarding reaching potential? In particular the bits about over training?

Nice work, I don't agree with bits of it due to personal preference but it is great. Well done .

It would be interesting to hear which bits you don't agree with any why/what you would do instead

Does this not go against the information in Marc's post regarding reaching potential? In particular the bits about over training?

The problem with over training is that it runs the risk of injury...which Marc specifically said was the problem with over training. If you guys don't get injured, then there is no problem. Once you get a full team and reserves team worth of prospects, injuries don't really matter. You always have another guy who needs playing time behind them. Of course, managing you players injuries can be frustrating until you have built your dynasty. I would say try to stay at least 4-5 deep at each position...1ST choice, 2nd Choice, 3rd Choice and then at least 2-3 prospects that are loaned out. If you have guys that play multiple positions, then you can use them as 2nd/3rd choice in other positions and loan more players out.

Cool thanks. So did you only start looking for promising under-21 players once you had already built a half decent team, or do you still do this from the start?

No, I always looked at under 21 first. But for the first few years most players I was able to sign were over 21, but had never played a game. Almost all of them were free agents....like 95% of the players were free agents. If you look at a free agent's history, if he has no history, then he's the kinda player I signed. Of course, most of these guys are foreigners and won't get work permits a lot of the time. It will be extremely frustrating. Either way, keep up the scouting like I said and you will sometimes see players that have little to no value and a lot of potential. Try to sign these guys, but again it will be frustrating because you wont be able to offer them enough wage per match to get them to play for you until you are at Premier. Another idea is to try to get these guys on a season loan. When I think about it, I had to get a keeper on loan almost every year until I reached Premier. Although in another game I was able to find a 5* guy as a free agent. I was just lucky in that game. Anyway, thats why I said not to worry about the domestic player bias until you actually have the quality and the means to be biased!

Great. Thank for the replies

Like I said, I started a game with AFC Wimbledon and followed your suggestions for training and finding some u21 players. Unfortunetely my wage budget isn't much (£9,880) at the moment and I didn't find many players before I went over my wage budget.

But I'm currently 4th in the league near the end of Feb in the first season and there's a few guys out of contract at the end of the season who I hope to replace with better players.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes

Does this not go against the information in Marc's post regarding reaching potential? In particular the bits about over training?

The proof is in the pudding. It does not as you use it with a rotational policy so they don't get overworked (I never have a player playing unless above 90% fitness) also, lots have used it with great results too.

It would be interesting to hear which bits you don't agree with any why/what you would do instead

I feel that "never buy a player over 21" only applies after a few seasons as the first seasons you may have the chance to buy top players for cheap and you need to establish a base of expierence AND youth.

Also I feel that first priority is your midfielders, without a good attacking/defensive midfield you have nothing and will be dominated in your games despite a world class goalkeeper.

My priority list in order would be:

Centre Midfield

Centre Defense

Target Man

Goalkeeper

Full Backs

Wingers/Secondary Strikers.

You need to establish a spine throughout your team therefore you have the MCs as first priority as they pull the strings before your DCs recover (I work on a balance 5-5 split of outfield players therefore in a 4-4-2 you have a DMC and a AMC), then with this you have to have someone to put the ball in the net (hence a target man like Drogba) as without it you won't win - it is that simple. Then I would say your first priority is next as your last line of defence is your goalkeeper so you need to have that but I wouldn't say it is before your spine as it is the last line. Your fullbacks are important as you said but only when you have "Ashley Cole" type players therefore you don't need to have it as important as your midfielders will provide you the same but the DL/DR can give that threat when needed.

Yeah that makes sense too. Especially about not getting too many U21 to start off with especially in the lower leagues.

The dynasty thing for me is totally wrong. "Pick this formation" doesn't work, your formation is detemined by players as if someone plays a 4-5-1 and has 6 strikers then it obviously isn't the formation for them though it may work for you in which you only have 3 strikers all of which are target men.

Also the scouting is totally inaccurate in my eyes as scouting should be done through stats not anything else, what I look for are players who have 10+ stamina then depending on my league I look at their other stats based on their position (e.g. 10+ tackling for a DC) then you need to look at other things such as age, versatility, price and who you already have (e.g. if you have 4 fast DCs you would need a few strong ones to balance it out). With this it leads me onto my next point of play "natural" players in their positions in which to me is not the case as you have to have balance in every position and if you play a right sided midfielder on the left it can work as they will come inside (e.g. Gerrard for England) and in this case it makes an extra AMC as naturally a AMC playing in a MC position will wander forward hence why a DMC needs to be in a midfield no matter what. Also, versatility is the key for depth and strength as it can save money - money is vital in LLM, but also it can give a leeway for your formation and your injuries.

Hence, sticking to one formation may not work as your squad may change within time if you are only buying youngsters mainly due to the fact that youngsters won't be consistently the same every year and your squad may change to fit with the youngsters you have brought through meaning you changing your formation to deal with this and this therefore requires versatility in your current players. The danger of only buying under 21s also shows this as under 21s can be promising but flop (look at Scott Sinclair) and therefore form can go out the window slowly as the more of your first team players retire the more you are relying on your youngsters to become key to your team though half may not be what you expected of them and with this you cannot buy just under 21s as your form over the years will dip and peak majorly and may cost you your job.

The dynasty thing for me is totally wrong. "Pick this formation" doesn't work, your formation is detemined by players as if someone plays a 4-5-1 and has 6 strikers then it obviously isn't the formation for them though it may work for you in which you only have 3 strikers all of which are target men.

Also the scouting is totally inaccurate in my eyes as scouting should be done through stats not anything else, what I look for are players who have 10+ stamina then depending on my league I look at their other stats based on their position (e.g. 10+ tackling for a DC) then you need to look at other things such as age, versatility, price and who you already have (e.g. if you have 4 fast DCs you would need a few strong ones to balance it out). With this it leads me onto my next point of play "natural" players in their positions in which to me is not the case as you have to have balance in every position and if you play a right sided midfielder on the left it can work as they will come inside (e.g. Gerrard for England) and in this case it makes an extra AMC as naturally a AMC playing in a MC position will wander forward hence why a DMC needs to be in a midfield no matter what. Also, versatility is the key for depth and strength as it can save money - money is vital in LLM, but also it can give a leeway for your formation and your injuries.

Hence, sticking to one formation may not work as your squad may change within time if you are only buying youngsters mainly due to the fact that youngsters won't be consistently the same every year and your squad may change to fit with the youngsters you have brought through meaning you changing your formation to deal with this and this therefore requires versatility in your current players. The danger of only buying under 21s also shows this as under 21s can be promising but flop (look at Scott Sinclair) and therefore form can go out the window slowly as the more of your first team players retire the more you are relying on your youngsters to become key to your team though half may not be what you expected of them and with this you cannot buy just under 21s as your form over the years will dip and peak majorly and may cost you your job.

The thing about under 21's is you have years and years to determine their caliber. By the time they hit 23, you know what kind of player they are and you can either sell them or play them at this point. Also, if you pick a formation and then buy players the fit that formation it gives you continuity where as constantly changing formations doesn't. Of course you don't have to play all players in their natural position, I was just saying that you get the MOST out of those players. That doesn't mean that I wont bring a DM in to replace my AM when I'm trying to cling to a 1 goal lead late. Anyway, you can definitely get through with only buying under 21 players. Easily. Especially when you buy so many young 5* potential players over the years that your entire reserves team is full. Couple that with the fact that my entire reserves team is on loan and a few of my starting squad is on loan and you can see that these players are developing and may or may not ever break into my first XI. The ones that are true quality will show themselves to be true quality after a year or 2....such as Driver above...I sent him out on loan when he was still a 1* overall, and he came back as a 4* at the age of 17. I knew that I had something in Driver...along with the fact that his attributes looked that good at that young of an age. Having Driver basically gives me 1 position that I don't have to worry about for next 10 years at least...which gives me plenty of time to find a replacement....which is why I ONLY buy guys under 21.

The proof is in the pudding. It does not as you use it with a rotational policy so they don't get overworked (I never have a player playing unless above 90% fitness) also, lots have used it with great results too.

I feel that "never buy a player over 21" only applies after a few seasons as the first seasons you may have the chance to buy top players for cheap and you need to establish a base of expierence AND youth.

Also I feel that first priority is your midfielders, without a good attacking/defensive midfield you have nothing and will be dominated in your games despite a world class goalkeeper.

My priority list in order would be:

Centre Midfield

Centre Defense

Target Man

Goalkeeper

Full Backs

Wingers/Secondary Strikers.

You need to establish a spine throughout your team therefore you have the MCs as first priority as they pull the strings before your DCs recover (I work on a balance 5-5 split of outfield players therefore in a 4-4-2 you have a DMC and a AMC), then with this you have to have someone to put the ball in the net (hence a target man like Drogba) as without it you won't win - it is that simple. Then I would say your first priority is next as your last line of defence is your goalkeeper so you need to have that but I wouldn't say it is before your spine as it is the last line. Your fullbacks are important as you said but only when you have "Ashley Cole" type players therefore you don't need to have it as important as your midfielders will provide you the same but the DL/DR can give that threat when needed.

This is a difference of opinion. I tend to build from the back to the front...and from the center out to the sides. To me, world class keeper is worth more than a world class striker. I'd take Kahn in his prime any day over Henry. Of course, you can't really go wrong with either. But in my experience, quality strikers are much more common than quality keepers.