New to the game

I am completely new to the football manager series, the only previous football manag er game I played was LMA manager on the PS2 up until 2007.

Obviously FM is much better and I really enjoy playing it however I must be doing something wrong. To get used to the game I started from the 'bottom' I am managing Clyde in the Scottish 3rd division and although they are bottom of the league in reality in my second season I am bottom of the league in January with 12 points, 5 points adrift at the bottom of the league without a win in 13 games - with most of my squad from the previous season and a few loanees from Celtic. I lose pretty much every games, out of all cups in the first round as well.

Am I approaching the game wrong? - do you have to go through detailed tactical set-ups before each game, talk individually to players etc. I have been following ass managers advice on which players to drop, training regimes etc but to no avail.

Any advice on how to 'play' the game to a newbie would be appreciated. Cheers.

My only advice would be don't take on as challenging (and potentially very frustrating) a team as anyone in the lower leagues. Best to start off as a team expected to do well in their league until you get used to how much more complex and immersive a game FM is than LMA manager, then once you have a bit of 'big team' management experience and the confidence that comes from winning have another crack it a lower league team.

welcome to the forums and the series, im 27 and have wasted way too much of my life on these games, i dont regret a thing

i would watch a few matches in at least extended highlights play a simple formation like 4-4-2 or 4-4-1 and try changing things and see how your changes affect the game, use your real life knowledge of football like (kinda obviously) dont play a high defensive line against fast strikers with slow defenders, in the lower leagues i would buy players with good physical attributes, a few people have said defenders with high heading ability seem to do really well at that level as do strikers with high dribbling acceleration and pace

check out some of the stickies in the tactics and training forum http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/18-Tactics-amp-Training-Discussion there are people there who understand the game and the match engine in depth

LMA manager was a very easy game and nowhere near to the same depth and detail levels of FM. In LMA 2007 (the last edition) I took York City to the Premiership!!

I'l have a look through the threads and take the advice upon managing a larger team. I have aspirations to manage in Scotland. I am currently bottom of 3rd division with Clyde but about to quit - so I may try Rangers.

Teams I want to manage:

Rangers

Real Madrid

Ajax

Dutch national team

Manchester United