Stupid, Uneducated American Crying for Help!!!

If someone would have told me fifteen years ago that I would be a HUGE soccer/football fan................I would have said that they were crazy. Well, I have coached 19 seasons with both for both of my girls, and I love the "Beautiful Game". I am a neophyte at best when it comes to the more advanced aspects of the game, but i am learning, and I simply Love the game.

But for God’s sake, where do I start with this beast????? FM is more intimidating than writing OS excel macros. Can anyone point a poor Yank in the right direction.

Best Regards

John Hogan

haha! a nice touch there mate well first off welcome. and to be honest there will be a lot of your personal feelings towards the sport that would dictate which team to start with if you have never played the game before i do recomend being a top flight team. English premier League , Italian serie 'A' or League BBVA in spain. i shall be up for a while yet so if you want some help mate feel free to give me a pm and will help you through what you need.

regards. Jack

If someone would have told me fifteen years ago that I would be a HUGE soccer/football fan................I would have said that they were crazy. Well, I have coached 19 seasons with both for both of my girls, and I love the "Beautiful Game". I am a neophyte at best when it comes to the more advanced aspects of the game, but i am learning, and I simply Love the game.

But for God’s sake, where do I start with this beast????? FM is more intimidating than writing OS excel macros. Can anyone point a poor Yank in the right direction.

Best Regards

John Hogan

Tactics and Training Forum is the best place to start. Read Tactical Theorems and Frameworks, the stickied threads plus the most popular unstickied ones. They'll cover everything from developing club strategies, tactics and formations, training regimes, backroom teams, man and media management. There is a lot to read, but most of it is very well written and accessible.

Then start threads asking questions in General Discussion and in Tactics. Treat the first few seasons as a learning experience and avoid anyone who has quick and easy answers. Although it is possible to 'break' the AI in some areas, it is far more satisfying to work out the in-depth nature of the game.

In my experience, question based threads from newcomer Americans usually become the best threads on these boards.

Oh, and buy Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. There is no better overview of historical and modern football management, especially its tactical side, than that book. It is also an excellent read.

As a Yank myself, I was in the same boat as you when I first came to FM. I started with top clubs as I watch nearly every match we have on Fox Soccer and ESPN3. If you're into watching it, I'm sure you'll know the best teams, players, and what not. I'd suggest starting off with a big powerhouse with a good amount of money, getting used to the transfer system and whatnot. I'd suggest trying out Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique Marseille, or Bayern Munich. All these teams are powerhouses in their leagues. Don't be discouraged if you get sacked after your first few tries. I did. I'd suggest checking out the Tactics & Training Discussion as well as the Good Player and Team Guide. After you finally excel in it, give it a few weeks, I'd suggest playing a team from either a smaller country in Europe or a lower league in a top nation and see if you're able to take them up. Keep reading guides such as the ones on the two forums I linked above and perhaps you'll begin to get the hang of it. Sorry for my sub-par grammar and whatnot, I'm a bit sleepy right now. If you bought it off Steam, I'm always available, just hit the add friend button on the top right corner of the link below .

http://steamcommunity.com/id/DUNEB/

- Dune

As wwfan has said above the sticky threads in both the Tactics and Good Players forums are good places to start for information.

P.S No need for the signatures on your posts please

i woudnt recommend a brand new user to FM to read the tactical theorems as it might over whelm them, i instead would try and read the in game help play a bit and then perhaps go and read the theorems and frameworks

i woudnt recommend a brand new user to FM to read the tactical theorems as it might over whelm them, i instead would try and read the in game help play a bit and then perhaps go and read the theorems and frameworks

If he were stupid and uneducated I suspect he might. However, I'm taking it on faith it was self-deprecating.

i can only go on evidence and self abuse he gave us

Loving football and loving football manager might not be the same thing. See how you do just playing the game the way that makes sense to you. When it doesn't work out use the forums and/or Google to work out why. If you stay up too late playing 1 or 2 nights then you may want to send your girls off to boarding school because you'll be busy for awhile!

-Another Yank (There are lots here)

Recommending Tactical Theorems & co to a guy who's looking to play FM for the first time is like bringing a kid to a BDSM brothel when he asks "where do babies come from"...

My advice is: just start with a Top Club with good players and plenty of money, so you can concentrate on understanding the basics of the game without having to worry about rebuilding the team etc...

Then take your time to navigate through the (intricate) menus and sections... don't rush into the first match, just explore the game world til you know what does what.

Oh and the online manual might be helpful too.

Then again it's going to be a bit of a shock anyway because there's so much stuff to "get" and to take care of... but don't give up right away.

i would start as a team where u have a good chance of challenging or winning the league that you are in. so choose man utd, man city, barcelona, real madrid, bayern munich, celtic, rangers or porto. they should all ease you in gently.

try and find a formation that suits your best players or sign a few new players to fill a formation you want to play. with these teams you should play attacking most of the time as you will be too good for a lot of the opposition.

most importantly try and enjoy it and if you do badly just try and find out where your going wrong. most of us are willing to help on these forums.

When you create your first tactic, dont be surprised if you get slaughtered, you will eventually tweek it to perfection

I would personally start with an already successful team. Play around with it for a while you'll eventually get the basics down and if you're needing help these forums are most helpful in guiding you in the right direction.