3rd Season, my Doncaster decline in Championship...

Hey,

Im in my 3rd season with Doncaster Rovers and my policy since being in league one was to get young players that were cheap, and with loads of potential. This worked as I was promoted from league one in 2nd place and my team had improved lots over the 1st season just from natural progression of the youngsters due to them playing in a reasonably competitive leage that matched their ability at the time.

I then came 8th in my 1st season in the championship and things went pretty much as I would have expected, losing to the bigger teams in the league but doing well against the ones that eventually finished further down the league than me.

Now in my 3rd season, rock bottom on 7 points at the begginning of October and cant quite understand why. I know friendly's count for little but we beat WERDER BREMEN 2-0 and had other good results including a win over Deportivo and now we cant even beat Northampton Town who somehow came up last season. We havent been awful, but we havent been winning. Although when Preston beat us we had 2 shots on target as opposed to their 12???

I use a variation of 3 tactics that I have had success with depending on whether Im playing a weak team, at home or away, or want a result rather than a performance, these have been successful in my first two seasons so i havent bothered displaying them. I also tweak them so the AI doesnt catch onto what my team generally does.

Team was/is:-

<GK> Stephané Ruffier

<RB> Zamani (loan from Ajaz, now in their 1st team)

<LB> Lewis Stephenson

<CB> Chris Hogg

<CB> Stefan Mardare (capped young Romanian)

<MR/AMR> Sabrin Sburlea

<MC> Ahmed Fathi (23x capped young Egyptian)

<AMC> Nej Pecnik (capped Slovenian)

<AML> Trond Olsen (just brought in Van der Meyde as Olsen was being a mardy ba***rd because I wouldnt accept just promoted Leeds! AS IF IM GONNA LET HIM GO TO THAT SET OF SCUMMERS!)

<ST> Danny Haynes (almost single handedly got us into championship, then was championship top scorer when we came 8th)

<ST> Junuzovic/Obdoulaye Baldé/Christian Nazarith.

SUBS:- scribe (gk), Joe Keenan, Brian Stock, Darren McDonald, other avaerage solid subs.

Any ideas how I can shake it up a little? Tried bringing in Zvoboimir Vukic (ex Pompey) for a bit of class and experience but cant get a work permit.

Anyone found any useful tips for competing well in the Championship. Admittedly I havent got the best team in the league but they'v improved as youngsters since last season when we finished 8th.

Thanks

a tip would be look in the good player good team guide for tactics players etc. that would be better than waiting for an answer

but if its just general advice id say the team has got used to and are now fnding ways around those tactics that have done well in the past. what i do when that happens is go for a more diffensive cautious approach to grind out results then gradually increas the freedom of players etc. then they get thier confidence back and boom, premiership. ok not quite but you wont be relegated.

and ill let the leeds comment pass. . bigger man and all that

Yeah iv sort of done that, reduced the full backs to less attacking and less forward runs to middle option rather than often, set a playmaker which i didnt have last year because my midfielder has 16 passing, 17 creativity and 15 flair. Dunno, think il try finding some players who arent on paper excellent, but are just good performers. Maybe a few from the Scotts premier league.

Sorry about Leeds comment, but obviously in real life they wouldnt allow, say Beckford to join us and vice versa so I just tried to bring that reality into the game.

Second season syndrome?

Or the more common "It's your tactics"

looks like a good kind of challenge there you have

why don't you upload the save game and let me try to stable the team. I'll post you my progress for the season and if i'm able, i'll let you know how i can help

Stick to one formation.

I had the exact same thing in my Doncaster game. Promoted first season. 9th in CCC second season. Third season started off ok but then I seemed to lose that underdog factor that was doing so well.

Players ratings slipped from 8's to 7's to 6's and I'd be only winning 1 in 5.

Ultimately, it probably is your tactic. If you want to make tweaks then I usually go more defensive with a counter attacking theme. Less creative freedom etc and maybe even change your tactic to something completely different, I went from 4-1-4-1 to 4-2-3-1 and stayed up in 18th place. Then the next season I seemed to have the underdog factor back again.

As I have taken a similar approach to you in terms of signings (and I had 2 of the players you have!) I took the philosphy of just trying to survive for 2-4 seasons while my prospects matured into better players.

The only other non-tactics advice I would give would be dont sell anyone from your best 11, even for silly money. Its harder to re-invest than you think as very few players want to come to sunny Donny I find...!

Your not kidding!!!

Havent really sold any of my first 11 but Brian Stock wasnt good enough for my first team and would sign a new contract when his was expiring. He didnt want to sit on the bench at the Deepthroat Stadium so I sold him for a pittance. The worst thing was my Romanian striker who id loaned to York and Yeovil for 2 seasons while he got himself up to standard for championship, he was gonna have a mint season banging in 9 goals in my 5 reasonably tough friendlies when that Romanian team CFR Cluj bid £6.25 (god knows how they saved that in their piggy bank) and the chairman went over my head and accepted it, same with my right back, the Egyptian Ahmed Fatih, chairman accepted a bid of £3.9 for him, luckily i had a good Belgian Regen that was just about ready for 1st team football, he's doing good now nd Fulham manager Ruud Gullit keeps watching him for the stands. He loves watching his bum when he gets forward like good full backs do.

Currently in 4th season, 7th place, lost my last game and dropped to 7th from 4th so its quite tight although the top 3 teams are 10 points clear and fighting amongst themselves.

I did use more defensive tactics in my second season but I just wasnt winning enough games, drawing lots and not losing many but I was sick of seemingly being under pressure throughout our games, waiting for counter opportunities so I went very offensive and now I keep winning either 4-1, 4-3, or "goals galore as ....... draw with Doncaster". My best striker now is a free bosman I got who was released by Stuttgart. Dunno if anyone else has had this chap, Manuel Fischer, quite inconsistent but when he plays well he really does go for it, Danny Haynes has dropped off a bit and hopefully it'l just be a bad patch as every other FM08 game iv had him in, he's been brilliant every season.

Got a message from the board saying the fans are very pleased that i seem to be getting the best out of NEJ PECNIK. He's scored 22 goals in 28 games from his attacking midfield position.

Things looking ok now.

For the record, who were the two players you had/have that are the same as my team?

My 1st 11 is currently:_

____________________________A. Scribe ______________________________

P. De Roos_________C.Hogg________________Chico__________L.Stephenson

______________________D. Kolodziejczyk______________________________

___________Z. Junuzovic__N. Pecnik__M. Nieto________________________

______________M. Fischer____________C. Nazarith_____________________

Pecnik and Haynes.

The season after my struggles I qualified for the playoffs but got turned over by Ipswich in the semis. The season after I made the mistake of selling Haynes for £5m - I couldnt replace him and I lost Paul Green as he fell out with me over a lack of ambition. I finished 10th after seeing a huge slump in Feb/March but hopefully have a couple of players ready to step up from the reserves next season.

After my learnings I now have 3 very different tactis that I switch between when one seems to have gone stale. A countering 4-1-4-1, an attacking 4-2-3-1 and fairly standard 4-4-2.

As I'm now just about to start the 2011/12 season I have very few original players:

Nelthorpe - left back. Despite being a winger he suits my countering formation.

Hird - hardly plays

Heffernan - hardly plays

O'Connor - regular RB still.

I ony just lost Greeny and Ben Smith.

None of those are championship standard anyway.

If your established in the championship and have a bit of money, go for some of hibs players. Stephenson, Hogg, Shiels.

Louis Saha was a free agent on mine in the same season your in too. Just finished my 4th, won promotion via the play offs thanks to Watfords "Paddy McCarthy" lol, being sent off in the 1st leg away in the 1st minute. 3-1 win, 3 away goals, 2-0 at home then beat Plymouth in the final who surprisingly knocked Sunderland out of the other semi final.

PREMIERSHIP HERE I COME .....for scrappy wins and signing the "over the hill, semi retiree's see what we can get out of him, released, unnattached or cut price veterans" type.