Having a dreadful time with this game.

I was new to FM this year and I have been playing for a good few months now but over a massive amount of saved games. The reason I keep restarting is that I cannot for the life of me get a good career going with Arsenal. I ALWAYS lose my first games of the season and find myself in 10th place or something like that with no way back in the league standings. I have tried signing great players, good prospects, I have tried everything in my power to make my teams good. It just DOESN'T WORK! I am so angry about my experiences that I wonder why I like this game. I will win a few games and then lose 4-0 to a low table team and it just angers me to no end. I have tried to create tactics and use smart ones that should work for my team and it doesn't seem to help much. Consistency is the key, it doesn't make sense. For example, I beat Newcastle 6-0, another team 6-0 on aggregate in Champions League qualifying. My confidence was sky high so imagine my surprise when Stoke hammer me 4-0... Another instance was when I beat Wigan and Villareal and then lost 3-0 to Fulham. WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN! I now find myself in yet another saved game where I have dug myself into a massive hole at the start of this season and I am already 9 points off of the top of the table. I just can't except winning a couple of games and feeling great and then getting smacked in my next game. Can anyone explain this? All help is appreciated.

ok. Your team needs to learn your tactics, you cant keep changing them and hope to do well. Get them training at a very high level on team blend.

Also, your team needs time to gel, you are signing a bunch of new players, throwing them on a pitch and expecting wins, it doesn't work like that. FM isn't the game that you simply buy the best players and win, give your team time to gel and learn your tactics and it will come good.

Download a tactic in the tactic downloads forum and have a go with it. Even if you want to create your own tactics, it is a good idea to use a proven and tested one so that you get a sense of how things are when they are supposed to work. It is also a good idea to study such a tactic to find out why it works, what they have done differently than you. By the sound of it, you struggle when the opponent play defensively against you and hit you on the counter, so there are definitely issues with your tactic. By downloading a tactic that you know works, you remove that issue from the equation so if you are still struggling you know that there are other things you need to look at in addition to your tactics.

If you're new to FM and you started with Arsenal, that could be your problem. Start in the conference or blue square league and learn the game at grass roots level where you're not managing your favorite team and putting yourself under pressure to win every game 4-0. Crucially your board shouldn't pressure you too much either. You'll enjoy the game at that level and learn what works and what doesn't if you stick with it, win lose or draw. You'll actually learn more from the defeats if you watch your games in 3d and look at the goals you're conceeding. Small tweaks to your basic tactic, a bit at a time, over the course of a season you'll gain a far better understanding than jumping straight in with Arsenal with a downloaded tactic someone else made, and expecting to win every game you play just because you have great players. That'll just lead you to quit and start again when it goes t!ts up. Yes downloaded tactics can be a good guide to how they work, but ultimately its far better (and much more rewarding) if you do it yourself.

Good luck

Do what he said ^^^^^ good advice that

Make sure you start with International footballer rep so as to make it easy to motivate your players also.

ok. Your team needs to learn your tactics, you cant keep changing them and hope to do well. Get them training at a very high level on team blend.

I always laugh when I read this. That's not a criticism I absolutely agree with it, it's just that the forums are laden with people saying when things go wrong to change your tactics around where others (including me) think it's more imnportant to be consistent so players don't get confused.

I think that's half the reason why so many people struggle. Too many conflicting opinions and noone is quite sure who is right!!

There is a difference between gelling a team with a solid tactic and having a rubbish tactic that needs changing. Thats where the conflicting advise comes from. In FM you dont need multiple tactics, or to change between them, you can develop one very good tactic and use that indefinitely, the advice to change things comes when people are doing things that are working against them, never to change a good solid tactic. If you speak to the people who know the most (wwfan, cleon) they will not tell you to constantly change anything, rather get 1 very good solid tactic and take things from there.