football manager 2011 too easy??

Hey was just wondering if anyone else has found the same as me i started with west ham which is my team we were expected to struggle which is true to life but then in my first season i lost just 3 games and finished 2nd!! and thats without buying a single player has anyone else taken a average team far beyond where they should in their first season or am i just sir alex in another body!!

too easy i agree Bristol City is my side. lost only 4 and drew 7 of the 46 games rest being wins.

got £15 million to attempt to avoid relegation but finished 14th

second season in prem i finished 7th with a £6 million budget

third season just won the title which seemed too easily £25million 6 players in and i finished 13 points clear.

this version seems easier and i wondered what formation your using?

im using standard diamond 442 which seems king on this game

Currently west ham as well and sitting top of prem after 9 games,the thing that bugs me most is that every time i win the other teams manager says id be doing a lot better if my team tried more shots rather than try to walk the ball into the net.

im glad im not the only one who thinks this then and i use 442 which seems unstoppable against anyone which is kinda pointless i loved mixing up tactics in fm10 for different matches but no need in this years as 442 does the job against anyone i may well try a lower league team see what happens!

I've had mixed fortunes with Southampton.

Season 1: Promotion via playoffs

Season 2: Narrowly avoid relegation

Season 3: Promotion via second place

Season 4: Currently 6th in Premiership

Mixed fortunes?

I think Southampton fans would snap your arm off for that....

Maybe West Ham is a top team and it's just Avram Grant that is doing poorly?

Now seriously.. apparently a good old 442 with most thing on default can work really good on all levels, haven't tried it myself but it's what people have been writing around here.

5-4-1 is a challenge but I'm probably just too lazy to yell at the players, it worn me down fast to have to interact. However it works decent, never worked for me before, so could be. Only tried 4-4-2 with Italy, knocked out in European finals, and a confederation cup 3rd place. Then Spain offered, and I won the world cup with the 5-4-1.

Then I lost in the European final again, against the damn pesky French AGAIN. So I dropped out, but been waiting for more than 2 years to get a decent job offer, nothing of interest, so I started a new one with Man City just for the heck of it. Even though I'm far from a fan.

yes, this game is far too easy, currently on a 38 match streak without conceeding a goal whilst my side are now scoring for fun

FM 2011 is WAAAAY too easy in my opinion. Here is my career game so far.

Season 1: Finished 3rd with FC Nordsjælland (Denmark)

Season 2: Won the league with FC Nordsjælland

Season 3: Won the double with Standard Liege (the team was ended at midtable the previous season)

Season 4: Won the cup with Hoffenheim (OK, this can happen in real life)

Season 5: Won the league and Europa League with Hoffenheim (beat Tottenham, Milan, Lille and Inter in final)

It's like you go through first season with your club building the squad, that ends up winning the championship in the following season. So far it's been very easy - I have never been so succesful (winning so many championships with smaller teams (except Standard)) in previous FM games.

Yep seems way too easy. Just promoted Telford to the premiership in my 6th season (1st in championship) via playoffs :/

Using a standard 442 made by the Tactical Creator.

Didn't really want to get promoted. Gonna be a struggle

I think morale is the key factor here. Once in a winning mood with all players on supurb morale you can win anything, almost independent of the quality of the squad. But once you hit a losing streak things can go quickly downhill and its very (too?) hard to get out of the misery, even when your team has by far the most quality in the league.

I also tend to think that the free-agents when starting a new carreer are too good, or accept offers from clubs below their quality to easily. It's pretty easy to get a top team in for free the first season, but after that it gets a lot harder. So in the first season promotion is likely while media prediction may be 'relegation battlers', you just need to bring in a bunch of free 'definite purchases'.

I reached the Europa League final (via CL Group Stage) with Rosenborg in the first season, with a custom tactic and with virtually no Big Signings (how could I make big signings with the measly budget I have?).

As lucky as it was, it's still too much of an achievement in the opening season.

So yes, definitely too easy as far as I can tell... Let's see if the 11.2 and .3 patches will make things more interesting (and less buggy)

In my Telford game ther's a weird thing. I win most games away. Find it harder home. Maybe it's the reputation thing. Teams are using very attacking mentality against me and it's easier to counter attack this.

I start with the same Standard mentality 442 tactic home&away.

But I've had this "better away"-attribute pretty much with every FM

I found it becomes too easy when your team learns your tactic inside and out. When I played as Santos in Brazil all I had to do was hold onto my top players and play a variation of 4-4-2 and I went unbeaten for a few months. As Blackpool, it was slightly harder as I had to sign a lot of players before I could get good enough to challenge but now I'm 6 points clear and scoring bagfuls of goals

Most people have been playing this game for so many years, come on here finding out who are the best players, tactics, training etc. Is it any wonder that you do so well?

took my 5 seasons to win the league with aberdeen, didnt think it was that easy, only won the league on the very last day of the season as well after a very up and down run of form, we will see how the first season as champions goes.

Hey was just wondering if anyone else has found the same as me i started with west ham which is my team we were expected to struggle which is true to life but then in my first season i lost just 3 games and finished 2nd!! and thats without buying a single player has anyone else taken a average team far beyond where they should in their first season or am i just sir alex in another body!!

When managers finally understand the tactics of the game and some of the finer issues such as training and motivation then the game becomes easy.

Even in cases where it's not supposed to be easy.... ie starting with a weak side, you end up making it easy after 3 or 4 seasons.

I don't mind this to be honest as I rarely play past 5/6 seasons and often start over........

Regards

LAM

I've had mixed fortunes with Southampton.

Season 1: Promotion via playoffs

Season 2: Narrowly avoid relegation

Season 3: Promotion via second place

Season 4: Currently 6th in Premiership

Oh if only it was real life Ter

SI will want to ship the most copies both now and in the future.

A difficult, at times frustrating, but to those who perservere rewarding game-ie FM 07- may appeal to say 10K gamers. Another 10M gamers who want a quick fix and get Eastleigh into Europe in eight seasons may get bored quickly, and won't buy next year's edition.

A much easier game in which the above is possible will appeal to those 10M quick fix gamers, and they'll most likely buy next year's edition, while those 10K hardcore fans are left with an ultimately unsatisifying game.

SI are simply moving with the times and tailoring their product to the market it seems. Sad, but plausible going by this year's showing.

I'm agree

Fm11 is too easy for me. I won several match with middle team in lower italian league and without great change at default tactic.

I found more difficoult in Fm08...

Please give us old fm difficoult

Well I dont know what I am doing wrong. I am playing as Liverpool and can only string at most a couple of wins in a row and most of my star players and nearly always injured especially Torres. I cant get past the first season because for some reason I am really not enjoying this editon of the game.

I started off with Arsenal and won the following:

First season - Premier League, Champions League

Second Season - Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Euro Super Cup, Club World Champ's.

Third Season - Managed England

Fourth Season - Currently Managing England. Also joined Man City on a one year contract, and which I won't be renewing.

Well the first season has always been the easiest, nothing new there. The hard part can be keeping pace up...

Arsenal got a very nice team, very nice...I almost drool, they should win more with that team, on the paper I can't see United being on par. Maybe they need a better forward though.

maybe i started a pointless thread as in my 2nd season with west ham doing nothing different but that will change but 10 games in and no wins!!! cant get a win if life depended on it but this games first season is very unreal as there is no way on earth my west ham could finish 2nd with no changes to the squad like i did we will see how this season pans out maybe i will get relagated and win the champions league lol !!

Well I dont know what I am doing wrong. I am playing as Liverpool and can only string at most a couple of wins in a row and most of my star players and nearly always injured especially Torres. I cant get past the first season because for some reason I am really not enjoying this editon of the game.

Basic 4-4-2 and you're there

Basic 4-4-2 and you're there

4-3-1-2 is where the future lies. This formation can do no wrong for me!

maybe i started a pointless thread as in my 2nd season with west ham doing nothing different but that will change but 10 games in and no wins!!! cant get a win if life depended on it but this games first season is very unreal as there is no way on earth my west ham could finish 2nd with no changes to the squad like i did we will see how this season pans out maybe i will get relagated and win the champions league lol !!

The key in this version is keep monitoring moral, giving them hell if they play bad, as in practice and in previous match. Without ****ing them off.

Btw playing first season with man city, and west ham is in relegation struggle. :=)

The game has to be easy, if you've played it for years.

This isn't an exclusive community, each year thousands of new users will buy the game. If it's way too hard for them (and they complain that it is hard) then it won't work.

The only way to adjust the 'difficulty' is to start as sunday league rep. If you are doing that and walking the game fair play. I have been playing over 10 years and I walk the game, on any level except Sunday League.

For example, an automatic rep at West Ham will result in you being a pretty good manager with respect. Try working at any level without the players respect.

Agreed, too easy. I started an Arsenal save, with the aim of testing out their youth system, so sold most of the top players, replacing them with their youth players.

I won the league in the second season by about 20 points, winning the first 20 games straight. I then got offered the England job after 2 years of management. It's ruined the game a bit for me.

Unfortuately it's way too easy if you play the game the normal way, like delving into the transfer market and getting the best player you can. But isn't that how the game was intended to be played, like real life?

Well I've tried that way and it ruined it, took a team from lower division to premiership, got a rich chairman with deep pockets and won everything, hardly ever had to change tactics, we just walked over other teams, became boring.

So took England job, had success far too often, became boring.

Games were like 25 shots for me, 2 shots to opponent, boring.

And it's not like these were minos we were playing with shot ratios like that.

So what's going on here? Does the ai not have the same tools available to it as a human manager, eg the training tools etc, what about player interaction when a player has played well and you praise him, does the ai have those tools? Is there only enough good players for a couple of teams and the rest just crap? Are my players given some kind of boost becuase they're in a human team? I'm using a large databse btw.

Just what is going on here, I want the AI to have the exact same tools to use as a human player, I don't want advantages and I don't want to win just because I'm able to select an option the AI may not have, don't know if that's the case but can't explain any other reason as to why it's easy.

So after winning the world cup and other cups with England I went back to my old club, but this time I'm trying a different approach to help even it out, don't see why I should have to but I have no choice if I want to enjoy the game now.

The club still has a rich chairman and top quality players although they've aged now and some have moved on, I won't be buying any players and only relying on what comes through youth.

That of course means not such a good squad which is fine as I want closer games instead of this BS 25-2 shots at goal difference. But doing it this way might also mean the sack as the chairman expects titles now.

It really narls me that I have to approach the game this way in order to make the matches closer and less boring, I mean who the heck wants to win all the time and with 25 shots to 2 kind of stats, so unless the 2012 version or any future version offers better AI, or whatever it is that's making it easy then I won't be buying another version.

4-3-1-2 is where the future lies. This formation can do no wrong for me!

I prefer 4-2-3-1 much better.

I've found this game very difficult until I realized morale is the key. Once I've learned to motivate my players through team talks and private chats, it's all been a success from that point onwards.

On top of that, you just need to pay little attention to what your scout has to say about the next opponent and act accordingly. There's no need to tweak the sliders and whatnot, it's enough to use TC options and a basic formation.

Im not finding it easy at all, although if there was a Football Scout i would excell at that. Liverpool in 2016 struggling to get into the champions league and losing to small teams as well as not being able to beat the big ones. My team is excellent, i just find that the tactics dont work for a while, they will work for 2-3 months then just completely die on me.

It's challenging enough for me. I've had better seasons on FM09, but I don't complain. Sure, winning trophies is important, but I'm more interested in trying to implement my football views into the game rather than winning at all cost. You can always try to set a new goal - developing your own players, international management, managing clubs from different countries and so on.

I think the longer you play a save the easier the game can get. It took me 10 years to take an average Championship club to the top of the Premier League and since then we have dominated everything for the last 5 seasons. I think part of the problem is that it is too easy to sign future stars up for cheap and then have the team become great in a few years time.

One of the things I would like to see change is that scouts be just as likely to get a players future potential wrong than get it right. As it is now I know if a scout tells me i'm looking at a future 3/4/5 star player that is what I will get. I'm sure in the real world scouts get it wrong a lot of the time, for me it would make the game much more of a challenge.

I just started the game as a Semi-Professional Footballer (lowest you can select in Italy), holidayed for a year, and took over Unione Venezia once they were promoted from Serie D -- with no backroom staff and only a few 'real' players, all of whom are overpaid. This should be a challenge, though they do have some money, a decent-sized stadium, and no debts.

Of course this game is too easy. Users talk about the game being easier as time goes on but even in my FIRST season the AI will neglect to hire competent physios and coaches compared to what I am able to hire. The season gets rolling and I am playing with a healthy squad while numerous injuries on other teams due to lousy physios put them at a clear disadvantage. If the AI is given the same tools as the human users as SI has stated then why are they not being used?

The AI really is the biggest obstacle to the game being a great challenge. Especially after a few seasons have past. I think what upsets me most is how criminally negligent they are with youth players.

To make it harder i'd like to see total attribute masking and total prefered moves masking, basically you would need to view the player playing to try and figure out his moves and abilities, that would have to be combined with the players value being hidden.

It would be no good just hiding attributes only, it has to be attributes and player value hidden, because if attributes are just hidden then all you would need to do is look for the value of the player which again takes away the challenge. I relise value isn't always an exact science, but if you're paying 20 million for a player and his profile shows 20 million then you can be pretty certain he'll be prety good.

Im in season 2056, none of that is holiday time either and I agree with previous posts about the longer you play the easier it gets.

To make it harder i'd like to see total attribute masking and total prefered moves masking, basically you would need to view the player playing to try and figure out his moves and abilities, that would have to be combined with the players value being hidden.

It would be no good just hiding attributes only, it has to be attributes and player value hidden, because if attributes are just hidden then all you would need to do is look for the value of the player which again takes away the challenge. I relise value isn't always an exact science, but if you're paying 20 million for a player and his profile shows 20 million then you can be pretty certain he'll be prety good.

Im in season 2056, none of that is holiday time either and I agree with previous posts about the longer you play the easier it gets.

Yeah, nice if you have 24 hours per day spare! Duh!!! It's a GAME.

Yeah' date=' nice if you have 24 hours per day spare! Duh!!! It's a GAME.[/quote']

Correct, it's a game, well done on spotting that.

So it's a game? Does that mean I should limit it to 5 mins? Really, some of us have longer attention spans, maybe if you played it a bit longer you wouldn't find yourself being sacked all the time. "Duh!!!"

I'm struggling to see why anyone would think that post reeked of jealousy. :confused:

He simply stated it would be too time consuming. Most people work, have family commitments and so on and unlike others, don't have a huge amount of spare time to devote to micromanaging certain aspects of a game. Surely that's not too difficult to wrap your head around?

Edit: I see you've edited your initial post and removed the jealousy comment and replaced it with something equally childish and inane.

Correct, it's a game, well done on spotting that.

So it's a game? Does that mean I should limit it to 5 mins? Really, some of us have longer attention spans, maybe if you played it a bit longer you wouldn't find yourself being sacked all the time. "Duh!!!"

Correct, it's a game, well done on spotting that.

So it's a game? Does that mean I should limit it to 5 mins? Really, some of us have longer attention spans, maybe if you played it a bit longer you wouldn't find yourself being sacked all the time. "Duh!!!"

Gotta laugh. Joined 2 days before and posted a massive 3 times. LoL

Don't recall complaining about the game being difficult for me either. I haven't been sacked on FM since about CM2.

i think it all depends what leagues/countrys you load up etc...

Far too easy if you cheat, use magical tactics from others and reload like hell. If not, I find it pretty difficult.

Gotta laugh. Joined 2 days before and posted a massive 3 times. LoL

Don't recall complaining about the game being difficult for me either. I haven't been sacked on FM since about CM2.

Unlike yourself' date=' I don't spend my life on forums. I post a couple of times then don't bother to read replies usually as what others say isn't important to me, what i say is what really matters. Then in 2 or 3 years time when I no longer have that email address and forgot login, I create another, log in, post and don't read replies. Here I've made an exception to that rule.

I'm struggling to see why anyone would think that post reeked of jealousy. :confused:

He simply stated it would be too time consuming. Most people work, have family commitments and so on and unlike others, don't have a huge amount of spare time to devote to micromanaging certain aspects of a game. Surely that's not too difficult to wrap your head around?

Edit: I see you've edited your initial post and removed the jealousy comment and replaced it with something equally childish and inane.

You don't need to micro manage every aspect. What this game comes down to is do you have better players than the other team, and the answer to that is yes if you've entered the transfer market. It doesn't really matter what tactics you choose for the most part, better players=win most games and have boring stats like 25 shots vs their 2.

Far too easy if you cheat, use magical tactics from others and reload like hell. If not, I find it pretty difficult.

Yes using cheats just ruins the game, not something I've done. Downloading tactics, well that's pretty stupid, again why would someone want to make things easy and ruin it. Reload, what a joke, must be really satisfying to win the league knowing they've reloaded till they get the right result, jesus.

How on earth are you finding it difficult? I presume you're playing it the normal way, eg buying players?

In days past when we didn't have the tactics wizard and roles, then yeah success was a bit harder, but now? Come on, it's a piece of cake, especially if you play in the top division, with the players you have there then there's little tweeking to be done.

And if you play in the lower division then just choose less creativity and you'll be good to go unless you have really crap players, then you might as well forget it.

The only way to make this game hard is...

A) Do not go into the transfer market, if you do you'll just end up with the best players and win virtually everything. That soon gets boring when you get games with stats of 25 shots to their 2 or whatever.

B) Rely totally on whatever comes through youth system.

By doing the above you'll make things harder and quite frankly more enjoyable in the long run.

And if you're playing it normaly, you know, transfers, tiny bit of micro management and still finding it hard, then you must be doing something seriously wrong, it's not rocket science.

And from what info's been released so far about 2012, then nothing has so far changed my mind about buying it.

Manage Anywhere, Anytime – the ability to add or take away playable nations in your saved game as often as you want. Manage in that country at the start of the next season - meaning you don’t have to decide on which nations are playable at the start of your career

Whilst welcome, it's not something that would make me buy it. That to me is more of a patch update.

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Transfers & Contracts – significant changes to the transfer and contract systems, including loyalty bonuses, better implementation of amateur and youth contracts, an improved transfer centre and the ability to lock areas of the contract negotiation when you aren't prepared to budge. This helps you to manage your budgets and gives you flexibility in what you offer money hungry players, or agents, as incentives.

Well again it's a little adition but sorry to say I can't get excited by contracts.

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Scouting improvements – using several real life scouting reports, a new in-game report was devised which includes squad analysis, tactics information and information about goals scored and conceded alongside lots of other scouting improvements, giving you all the information you need to prepare before kick-off and throughout the season.

As I only go the youth route relying on what comes through the academy then this is of no interest to me.

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3D Match Improvements – new animations, a whole new crowd system, improved weather system, more stadiums, plus two brand new cameras - "Behind Goal" and "Director Cam" as well as all other camera angles being reversible - meaning you can watch and analyse every aspect of every game.

Reverasble, big deal. Director cam sounds intersting but it's not going to sway me into buying it just because of a couple of new cams.

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Intelligent Interface – a new adaptive layout system, which means the higher your screen resolution, the more info is easily at your fingertips. The new interface also contains new filters, customisable columns, a new tactics screen, and lots of new overview screens.

Welcome but not exactly a reason to say hey Im going to get 2012 because it has new filters and other new screen stuff.

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Tone – a whole new level has been added to team talks and conversations, with the new tone system, which allows you to specify the way you want to say things – be as cool as a cucumber by saying things calmly or throw tea cups around by saying things with passion. There are 5 different tones to choose from with specific comments per tone.

Come on, lets face it, most of just let our assistant do team talks. More micromanagment would turn me off.

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Brand New Tutorial – standing separate from the main game, a mode to help new players find their way around the game easily, whilst also offering tips to experienced managers on how to get the most out of the game, as well as a new in-game “how to” system

Just another thing to turn off in preferences.

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On top of these key innovations, there are over 800 new features making huge improvements, such as the media system, press conferences, the youth system, newgens, the social networking options, friendlies, international management and many more which will be detailed in a series of video blogs over the coming months, alongside more information about Football Manager 2012.

Wow something I might be interested in, the youth system, and I'm sure interesting for others, yet it's not been detailed yet. Really guys, did you not learn from football manager live that the vast majority wanted a better youth system, this was eventually brought in of course, so why only list it as one of the 800 improvements rather than list it as a feature?

Hope it's a good feature, because right now what you've listed in more detail has done absolutely nothing to sway me to buy 2012.