A perspective from the Veikkausliiga

I started a small database game with all leagues and divisions loaded and settled into the Veikkausliiga (Finnish Premier League) with TPS. My Computer specs are Pentium 4 3.0Ghz 3GB RAM (2004 model). I turned off all the 3D options and sound, and have it play in CM2001/2 mode.

Easy game

I've played all of the CM's and FMs and this version seems to be easy, once you get into a rhythm.

In the first preseason cup game I was away to Mypa and won 3-0, albeit with a few injuries. However the next game I won 5-0. It took a few matches and injuries to lose a game. During the middle of the season there were some losses, but when fitness returned, the team was too good, and saw off a couple of other teams to win the league by a few points. What was interesting is that the rival club FC Inter were relegated, and HJK (the biggest club) only finished mid table. At TPS, there is a senior squad and an U19 squad, but some of the bigger teams (e.g. HJK) also had a B Team squad! Another interesting feature/change from FM2011 is that one of my South African players is treated as an EU-member, but is still counting the days towards citizenship. No work permit issues here

Tactics

The assistant was complaining about having no backup tactics, so I just chose the same 4-5-1 formation again as a backup, and he did not complain any more. Perhaps the team learnt the tactic twice as fast. Half way through pre-season 2011 they had mastered it. In the first preseason cup game we trounced Haka 3-0. The AI seems very slow at starting the season.

Finances

All of the clubs in the top division are struggling with finances - in fact FC Inter and HJK were unable to play in Europe (a message came up on the screen saying that their financial situation was too dire), which was amusing. However, after winning the division, I will be now facing the same prospect. My only strategy has been to buy a promising junior on a free transfer. Let's hope the scout knows what they are talking about. In the first season I sold my captain, 32 year old Def C for £45k but at the end of the season I was -£180k until we received £360k for winning the league. After bonuses etc the back balance was a healthy £0, which has decreased to -£119k just as the second season is about to kickoff.

The plan is to try and win some games in the Champions League, but failing this, the promising junior will need to be sold. I did get a new coach from China and a scout from South America. For one of those transfers, a £26k fee was required, but the board stepped in and allowed some sort of budget change, which was great. Slow progress will be the plan. This scenario is quite realistic, but the difference is that the club manager probably does not last long enough to put such a plan into action, let alone win the league in their first season! Renewing contracts at the start of the season is a must to hold some players. I offer them a lot of bonuses to keep the wage minimal. Loving the financial side, it is a great challenge.

Injury strategies

It seems that trial players can still play league fixtures, which was a great bonus at the start of the new season when I had many injuries (at one stage 10 regulars were out).

Not sure if this is happening to anybody else but the amount of injuries I've had in pre season, on the demo, is absolutely horrendous. I'm using the default training and I have around six injuries to first team players most of the time. It's like I'm getting two to three injuries per game.

To be fair despite this, I too have had a lot of injuries during the season. I had hardly any during pre-season but I had about 6 of my top players out for a small period for a few weeks into the season.

I took some screenshots at regular intervals here:

I think the key to reducing injuries is to have players training pre-season. I don't think the AI does this, which is why at the start, the game is very easy. Never start players that are under 90% match fit and under 95% condition. For the younger members, put them 'Available for U19 squad until match fit'. Hire lots of coaching staff, even if they are not the ones you really want, and take the workload off the default members. In this game I had 1 youth coach, 1 fitness coach and 1 assistant manager to start with! Now I have 7 coaches for this season. Use Benitez's rotation stategy throughout the year. Every one gets a game = less injuries. In the Finnish Preseason Cup you can use up to 5 substitutes, so use them wisely. I've tried downloading some new training schedules but the players like to moan about them in their information profile. However I just leave them moaning. The default schedules are not bad either.

I agree with op - decline is massive for minor injuries. I can understand when it's a serious injury but my example was just a 2 month injury. I haven't yet upgraded to 12.0.4 - is it still the same on that?

I turned that abortion called Steam off after getting the goalkeeper fix in 12.0.3 - works for me!

-----------------------------

Football Manager 2012 v12.0.4 Changelist

-----------------------------

Competitions

============

Finland

-------

- Fixed issue with player bans not working correctly in the First Division.

I'll avoid the First Division

Adding/Removing Leagues

The plan in this game was to remove some of the obscure leagues slowly (like maybe after 2-3 seasons) and see if the players from those leagues survive. Certainly the good ones will be acquired by a league with a high reputation. This in theory should make the computer run faster. At the moment it struggles for 10 mins to advance a day However in saying that, once you clear the steam cache etc,and run it in offline mode, FM2012 is very quick compared to FM2011. The game took 5 hours to construct but running it has been smooth.

Hope you liked the different perspective

A good read - I enjoy hearing about leagues that rarely get a mention. Keep us updated with your progress.

A good read but it should be in the Career Updates forum so I will move it.

Oh, the point of this was to raise more awareness of how the injuries situation develops. Here are a couple more screenshots from the first season and leading into the current preseason:

As you can see, the AI does not master the training in preseason, but the TPS team is reasonably fit and ready to play.

Just to say, you have the most awesome user name.

:rocker: