Just No Good At The Game, Pretend I'm Newbie, Help Me Out.

I'm a FM veteran but in the last 2/3 versions just been no good at the game, after they've made it unecessarily difficult.

Even as Arsenal can't string together a few good results/performances. Got sacked after 5 straight defeats. Before FM2011 I used to run the world haha.

Can someone with a quick guide pass it on, or tell me how you set up your player and team instructions when you get your new team? Maybe I'm going into too much detail.

Also can someone explain 'Philosophy'. So unecessary.

Thanks!

There are many good guides in the tactical forum I hear.

Philosophy governs the Creative Freedom and Roam From Position sliders/boxes. The more fluid a philosophy the more creative freedom and players straying from their assigned duties you get.

I find you can tweak too much, tactics aren't the be all if you're team are depressed. If it's revolution, over evolution then that's too much. Losing 5 games in a row is a bit much though admittedly, but work on interaction.

Use every interaction you can think of to build their morale back up, even a 1-1 draw is foundation for the next game. Even a 2-1 loss can be used as a building block.

Explore every choice for every player in terms of interaction in press and especially in pre-kick off, half time, full time and speak to each player individually.

I know it's wooly, but it's worth the effort in my experience. Losing 3 games in a row can be a building block to move on.

i have been playing for ten year and im still rubbish. Love it anyway

i have been playing for ten year and im still rubbish. Love it anyway

That's spot on. Sometimes no matter what you do you're going to have to hold hands up and say whether it's chemistry/lack of players etc it's not working out. But that's half the challenge. There's 100's of teams to manage in the game and many different levels.

Managing Arsenal, Man U, Bayern or Barca is not always the easy option.

Don't worry too much about over-thinking tactics and sliders. I usually run through the tactic creator guide in the game and only make minor tweaks to certain players depending on their strengths (or weaknesses). Also don't forget that with any new tactic or starting 11, all of the players will take time to gel and become acclimated with the system. It may take 10 or more games before they're really comfortable.

Don't over complicate your game. Simply rely on scout reports for better players AND use any reasonable common sense tactic and you'll be fine.

Nope whole game is b******s. Just lost a game 4-1 to a team who had 10 mean from the 2nd minute.

Arsenal is a tricky one this year, with key signings having left and a less than perfect morale at the start. Add to it there's a new manager that they're under...

Been playing as Arsenal myself recently and having similar problems to the team in real life. Got knocked out the cups early to teams I shouldn't have, struggled in the league and just scraped 5th because Liverpool went on a really bad run. Managed to get to the Champions League final though, with some dramatic knockout games vs Inter and Man City (came from 4-0 down in the first leg to somehow scrape through!).

After the sacking of Arsenal (mentioned above) I quickly joined fulham. Won a few good games then could only win or draw here and there. Now it seems EVERY SINGLE GAME I concede within the first 5 minutes, without fail.

It might be worth taking a more defensive approach to the opening of the games then, try using a Defensive or Counter based strategy.

Absolute basics:

Philosophy: How much do you trust your players to do the right thing on the pitch? Very Rigid = not at all, Very Fluid = completely

Roles: Use player attributes to select appropriate roles

Duties: Make sure you have some players moving between the lines. Attack moves players level to front men, support into the spaces between the lines (except for FCs, when support drops them deeper), Defend holds position

Strategies: Have 3 match prep tactics (Attacking, Standard, Defensive in same formation) and use the pre-match odds to determine which one is the best choice for the game

Doing that should at least get you started off on the right foot. From there, you can start experimenting a little more.

What formation do people find most successful, bored of Barca's 4-5-1 it's not working. 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1? Or 4-2-3-1 just came to my head. The 2 being MCs not DMC.

Absolute basics:

Philosophy: How much do you trust your players to do the right thing on the pitch? Very Rigid = not at all, Very Fluid = completely

Roles: Use player attributes to select appropriate roles

Duties: Make sure you have some players moving between the lines. Attack moves players level to front men, support into the spaces between the lines (except for FCs, when support drops them deeper), Defend holds position

Strategies: Have 3 match prep tactics (Attacking, Standard, Defensive in same formation) and use the pre-match odds to determine which one is the best choice for the game

Doing that should at least get you started off on the right foot. From there, you can start experimenting a little more.

Thats for that, easier to understand how you've put it. Might just go back to extreme basics for my fulham team, can be solid and good on the counter but it's just not happening.

What's basic to me at any level is this:

Workrate: All players want to have to work hard (anything lower than 10 is sunday pub league footballer).

Determination: All players have to be determind to win a game or be the best they can be (anything lower than 10 is sunday pub league footballer).

Teamwork: All players have to be wanting work out for their mates/team (anything lower than 10 is sunday pub league footballer).

The basics. I can't think of many teams that can be champions; (whether it's the World Cup or the Blue Square Premier) who don't have the core values. My player search and shortlist has min 10 as a starter on all 3 attributes before I even look at them.

It honestly works for me and I've played SI's CM/FM since about 95/96. So they nailed it as well. Get that core squared away as a minimum and it's halfway there.

As for the other halfway bit...well.

What formation do people find most successful, bored of Barca's 4-5-1 it's not working. 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1?

That's the wrong way of thinking. Think: What formation do I want to play or what formation best suits my team? If you make the right decisions prior to, during and after the matches, then you can succeed with any formation. There's no 'best one'.

Im finding playing Rigid/Counter football a dream on this FM, I really struggled with getting it to work on FM11 , But after my first 6 months with Leicester (Bearing in mind pretty much the whole team is new to start with), Only bought 2 players (Of my own), And managed to get into the semis of the Carling cup, Damn having to wait to find out what will happen! lol And sit proudly on top of the league with most goals scored and least conceeded, Also a note of a thank you to wwfan, Implemented alot of you advice into this team and its worked a dream, Team moral has not once dropped

Keep It Simple Stupid