FM2013-Chemistry Ideas for the new game!

With the 2012 season coming to a close, thoughts are naturally turn to how Sigames are possibly going to improve what was already a pretty excellent game in FM2012!

Having been an avid listener to the Football Manager Podcast one of the things I enjoy the most is hearing some of the new features each year (of which there are always plenty.) This year, after playing the game for a crazy amount of hours, I have an idea for the new game which has come through my experience playing the game.

Being a Liverpool fan I am well aware that the current issue on everyone's mind is whether Suarez and Carroll can play together and form a great partnership and this got me thinking perhaps in FM2013 there could be some form of feature for partnerships within the game.

For example in my game right now I have signed two young very exciting prospects upfront from France called Hervin Ongenda (17 years old) and Ismael Cisse (16 years old) who currently have both played 25 games for the U18s and Reserves; scoring 14 and 21 goals respectively. Both players have a potential rating of four stars so obviously I am looking to integrate them into the first team slowly and, given their age, they could easily be at the club for fifteen years or so. This, one would have thought, would create a great relationship on and, possibly, off the field.

My idea, therefore, would be in incorporate partnerships into the new game. The game already has a feature on training focusing on teamwork but I believe my idea could add a whole new dimension to how Football Manager is played. In the same way that players have information as to whether they are comfortable playing in a position or not surely there could also be information as to how well people link up with other players. For example Ongenda and Cisse would have perhaps a "working" partnership right now but in a few years it could be "fluent" or "natural." The levels could be "dysfunctional" "awkward" "working" "good" "excellent" "natural" and, obviously, the better the level the better the players would perform together.

This idea could spread to more than just strikers, however, with it also incorporating goalkeeper/centreback, back four, fullback/winger, centralmid/centralmid etc. etc. This whole feature would give users more control on how well the team is gelling together and would add another level of difficulty as users would have to ensure squad rotation and squad consistency were balanced as to not disrupt the teams rhythm.

What do you guys think?

I've always wondered if this is purely down to tactics (i.e. a front four that love lots of movement and flexibility may well "glue" together well if you play a fluid front four) or whether there is something more.

Take Yorke and Cole - they had an almost "telepathic" bond with each other on the field, but was that down to the fact that they were tactically perfect for each other, or did they know each other better than tactics?

Then there are the "odd couple" playing styles. Rooney and Owen played well for England several years ago, despite the fact that tactically, neither really worked together that much.

I do think some form of "understanding" is viable, of course. For us, Welbeck and Cleverley have played together for years, both at United and for England youth teams, and it shows in the way they are willing to try 1-2s. On the other hand, it could well be that that is simply Welbeck and Cleverley's play styles and their tactic.

I think it might just boil down to "football intelligence" and "football flexibility". You will probably never find a strike partnership that is described as "heavy in chemistry" if it is two huge forwards knocking the ball down, for example. Yorke and Cole; Henry and Bergkamp; Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Messi; Villa, Messi and Pedro... All of these partnerships were down to players who were intelligent and not one-trick ponies. Put further, I think any combination of two of these forwards would work well together eventually. Which would mean that football "chemistry" may not actually exist.

There is already the section on a player's profile that says "feels he works well with ______", but I agree that this could be taken further. Centre back partnerships can be crucial to a team's success, just look at the way Liverpool performed with Agger/Skrtel this season as opposed to when Agger has been injured. I also saw a bit on Goals on Sunday with Steve Bruce talking about his partnership with Gary Pallister and how they only missed a handful of games in 5 years.

I'd also like to see a stat which shows how many times Player X has appeared on the same team sheet as Player Y, Player Z, etc. and perhaps some stats to show how results have gone with different combinations of players. The more stats, the better.

Yep, like the idea a lot.

The top level should be very rare and difficult to achieve. I'm talking the aforementioned Yorke/Cole levels, or perhaps even the Quinn/Phillips partnership at Sunderland circa the early noughties .... legendary.

Beardsley & Linekar.

There is already the section on a player's profile that says "feels he works well with ______", but I agree that this could be taken further. Centre back partnerships can be crucial to a team's success, just look at the way Liverpool performed with Agger/Skrtel this season as opposed to when Agger has been injured.

It is like Hollands World Cup team where Robben, Van Persie, Van der Vaart en Sneijder worked very well together. Each of them called to other ones their favorite players and that payed off on the field. If you implement it like it is now together with the ideas in the starting post, it could give more depth to the developing and effectiveness of tactics.

This is a very interesting idea - great first post!