Is This The Hardest FM Yet????

ive had 3 games so far on fm09 Norwich, Oxford and Arsenal and all 3 have ended in failure, bottom of league after 23 games as norwich!!!

ive tried different tactics and players and formations but no success even as arsenal i was losing to stoke and wba at home?

i had good success mostly all the time on 08

anyone else struggling to succeed??

No... most likely user problem

ive had 3 games so far on fm09 Norwich, Oxford and Arsenal and all 3 have ended in failure, bottom of league after 23 games as norwich!!!

ive tried different tactics and players and formations but no success even as arsenal i was losing to stoke and wba at home?

i had good success mostly all the time on 08

anyone else struggling to succeed??

There is a slight change to the match engine from 08's and as a result, how you set your team and individual player instructions would most likely have contributed to your poor run of form. What worked in 08 might not be that easily transposed over to 09, and would most likely need a little tweak here and there.

If you have not already done so, do check out wwfan and millie's superb thread which offers great tactical insight: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=61144

Additionally, how you handle the media approaching a match as well as teamtalks will also impact your players' morale. And that in turn will also affect the match performance of your players.

I actually find it a lot easier to win than 08.

I think the main thing is that the ME is less 'random' and more consistent ie. you can expect to win a game 1-0 by defending a lead instead of them always nicking a last minute goal.

I dont know if its hard. But it is very complicated at times...

Having played them all since the old amiga days i thinks it is harder as before you would pick your tactics and start playing, i would normally do very well with rangers in the english prem without ever changing tactics but i feel now that tactics are a much bigger part of the game.I watch my team struggle with certain aspects during a game and i have to change tactics a lot more than b4 which works and makes the game so much better for it.

Having played them all since the old amiga days i thinks it is harder as before you would pick your tactics and start playing, i would normally do very well with rangers in the english prem without ever changing tactics but i feel now that tactics are a much bigger part of the game.I watch my team struggle with certain aspects during a game and i have to change tactics a lot more than b4 which works and makes the game so much better for it.

You basically just need to react to the AI and temper your approach to suit the occassion. If playing away from home, be more conservative etc.

Tactically, I keep it simple and go with a Rule of One approach. Since I mainly manage in the Championship or L1 I stick with a 442 and direct passing game.

If you really want to crack the tactics check out the TTF article on FM Britain.co.uk. Its horribly wordy and pretentious at times but useful!

I think it is the hardest FM ever, it is so easy to go on a bad run and so hard to stop the bad run. Im really enjoying it and found looking at how your team are losing and adjusting accordingly is the best way to get success.

It´s bloody impossible to win games. I have scored less than ten goals this season. I simply can´t get past the other teams goalies, no matter what players, tactics and psychologics I have used.

I like realism, but come on!

It´s bloody impossible to win games. I have scored less than ten goals this season. I simply can´t get past the other teams goalies, no matter what players, tactics and psychologics I have used.

I like realism, but come on!

Strange, my problem is the exact opposite... I am scoring but also conceding resulting in alot of high scoring games. I haven't yet kept a clean sheet.

Strange, my problem is the exact opposite... I am scoring but also conceding resulting in alot of high scoring games. I haven't yet kept a clean sheet.

What tactics do you use?

Well I have developed my own tactics but I score because of the pace of my forwards. I have 5 4-4-2 tactics (Attack, Control, standard, defensive and shut up shop). As I am in lower league the pace and strength of forwards result in alot of goals.

That's true for me too but it's not my strikers doing the scoring. They're non-existent. As is my attacking midfielder. The tactics have been ruined for me.

In my first two seasons with Arsenal i have won the prem and champoions league both years and lost in the carling cup and fa cup finals both years (which hurt). i am now pretty indifferent to whether I carry on. I kind of feel like i have "finished" the game.

it is harder.

seeings as it took me 4 seasons to get out of the bottom 7 with fulham!

i have to say I've found success more quickly on this version than previous. I'm playing a simple 442 with just slight changes to passing tempo attacking etc. maybe its the simplicity of my tactic that has my players playing well..

its so hard im starting to lose my affection for the game, just spent 2 hours doing trainingand tactics with peoples tips and my season started like this

loss 3-0 coventry ( 3 down after 19 minutes )

loss 1-0 shef wed

draw 0-0 plymouth

loss 5-0 wolves!!

i just stopped playing after that!

The biggest impact in terms of tactics, for me, was as follows:

1) Make sure a player always has someone to pass to (i.e. dont put them all on the same mentality, stagger it slightly)

2) If your Ass Man says there is a gap between midfield and defence, pull your defensively minded DM back a couple of mentality notches

It's made the world of difference to my team and we ended up playing some great football. Keeping the same tactic but having slightly tweaked home/away versions helped as well. I didnt score the most goals in the league, but I kept some clean sheets playing 4-2-3-1 (no wingers).

ive had 3 games so far on fm09 Norwich, Oxford and Arsenal and all 3 have ended in failure, bottom of league after 23 games as norwich!!!

ive tried different tactics and players and formations but no success even as arsenal i was losing to stoke and wba at home?

i had good success mostly all the time on 08

anyone else struggling to succeed??

I've done one season on 9.0.0 and I did reasonably ok, and I feel my failure to secure Euro qualification (I dropped from 4th to 6th on the final day) in the SPL was my own undoing. I switched formation too much and didn't put enough trust in any striking partnership.

I've started three games (with 3 different clubs) and done better in each new one as I tweak my tactics. Third game with AFC Wimbledon won my first 10 games! So, no it's not harder per se, you just need to work on tactics afresh, just like with every FM!

I've done one season on 9.0.0 and I did reasonably ok, and I feel my failure to secure Euro qualification (I dropped from 4th to 6th on the final day) in the SPL was my own undoing. I switched formation too much and didn't put enough trust in any striking partnership.

I feel on this years FM you get reward for detailed tactics and tactical consistancy. In my save i never had a win in all pre-sesson and the first 3 league games i didnt change the formation and tweaked with it now im on a 3 games unbeaten streak

i won the carling cup and came fourth in the league with west ham in my first season, so i would say it is too hard.

with the demo i did experiment with tactics a fair bit, and sometimes reload games i had done badly in to try and understand where i could improve.

tactics are quite different from fm08, so if you are trying to do exactly the same thing you are likely to fail. player mentality is very important.

once you get things working, i think this is the best game yet in terms of realistic tactics. e.g man marking works very well now, and can be used very effectively to snuffle opponents key players.

In my first two seasons with Arsenal i have won the prem and champoions league both years and lost in the carling cup and fa cup finals both years (which hurt). i am now pretty indifferent to whether I carry on. I kind of feel like i have "finished" the game.

Thats because your not playing the game right. Dont start at a top team, wheres the challenge? Get in at League 1 or 2 level, like a real manager, progress over a few seasons, take a little team to the top, or have a career where you impress at a small team, and work your up the managerial ladder. It sounds to me like you havent even started the game, let alone finished it.

Sometimes KISS is as effective as complex tactics. I'm a fan of one formation, one set of settings, one mentality, one way of playing. I may change mid game if need be, but not before each game. I play as Arsenal though, so can force the oposition to adapt to me rather than adapting to them.

I don't touch individual player mentalities on 09. I found my team plays better as a unit on the same mentality.

1st off i've found in lower league management use team long passing the passing in 09 is horrindus so if you're gonna miss..miss long.

took me over 30 hours to finish my 1st season and have resorted back to 08. if you still have 06-08 installed on your pc try it and see if you dont stay with it, until some patch comes out i'm pretty much done with 09. dont really care anymore as im just wore out with this whole ordeal but id like to see those playing it to have a good time and am interested in seeing some workable tactics for 09. i found a tactic challenge thread for 08 at the dugout and was one of the better threads ive ever seen concerning cm/fm. while 09 has me down a bit the release has a least brought back the desire to load up a game of fm just not the most up to date version

I'm finding it a lot more difficult, but I've had less time with it than it had taken me to become good at FM08. FM08 is currently looking very attractive to me, but I'm going to keep working and reading up on things in the T&T, and I should then be able to get a lot more enjoyment out of the game. I don't know why I'm finding it more difficult: the basic principles of tweaking and countering should be the same :confused:.

My problem only seems restricted to away games, I have W16 D1 and L1 at home and W0 D1 L15 away this includes a 4-0 drubbing at stoke and 3-0 defeat at west brom despite beating both by 4 at home

i thought this was the hardest fm yet

i think some of it has to do with bugs though

i've only managed to win with a 5-3-2 formation. 442 was impossible.

This 'has to do with bugs' comment really isn't helpful. There is only one nasty bug in the ME, which is the route one goal bug, which has a work around of sorts (OI close down the keeper). It is also slightly too easy to score from range and shots hit the post too often. Outside of that, there is very little wrong with the ME and certainly nothing that should unfairly cost you games.

I lost in the 2nd Div play off final in the first season with Port Vale.

In the 2nd season I have played 24, won 20, drawn 4 scored 48 and conceded 6.

I created a 3-3-2-1-1 with wingbacks in the 2nd 3 for this version of the game and do not make any concessions to this for the opposition.

I hope this is a bit of a fluke ie I bought some good players for the division otherwise it will get a bit boring

i finished 4th in my first season as blackburn rovers...

Been using a 442 most of the time btw...

tactics guys....tactics..

just keep tweaking, and think, really think about your players and their abilitys (or lack of)

Don't think I've made it past January yet, have struggled to do anything with teams like Spurs and Villa.

I found FM 08 hard to get to grips with, but did fairly well on that in the end, so I dont think I'm tactically inept, but on 09 I seem to be conceding goals and chasing games, and finding goals hard to come by, never easily beating teams, even dodgy low rep european sides.

I think that the players not wanting to play for an unknown manager at the start of the game seems to have a massive effect now, with good players putting in woeful performances at the start of the season, which I think is unfair on players who want to just jump straight in at a higher level club.

Hopefully it will pick up, but finding it almost impossible at the moment :/.

Uh... that's interesting.

I was thinking how easy it was - I have won almost every game so far - and came to the forum to see if others were saying it was too easy. And I find this instead.

Wow.

I think the difference is that the game plays more realistic now. So if your FM08 tactics were a bit unrealistic compared to real life, now you'll suffer if you stick to those tactics. However, if you play slight variations on what would work in real life - tweaking here and there - then you'll find the success is down to your players instead.

All of this is great for most of us... but if you don't have a basic clue about football, there's your problem.

This is probably by far the most difficult version of FM a brand new person can get into. It's great that the game is all realistic and complicated, but shouldn't there at least be some kind of difficulty levels that you can choose to play the game in?

This game basically frustrates and eliminates 99% of beginners. That really can't be good for business.

Uh... that's interesting.

I was thinking how easy it was - I have won almost every game so far - and came to the forum to see if others were saying it was too easy. And I find this instead.

Wow.

Oh? Well would you be so kind to upload your tactic(s)?

I am currently 6 games in with Liverpool and i have won all 6 of my league games beating Man Utd 3-2 at home, Chelsea 2-0 at home, Blackburn 3-0 away, Spurs 3-0 at home, WBA 2-0 away and Newcastle 1-0 away. (not in that order, although i had Utd 1st game) Tough start for me as Liverpool manager, especially when i think Liverpool are very under-rated in the game. Lucas however, is very over-rated in the game and in real life needs to be shot!!!! I play with 2 holding midfielders away from home, with Keane behind Torres and Gerrard wide right. At home i play 1 def mid with Gerrard behind Torres and Keane. It is working beautifully. I played Birmingham in the CC and drew 1-1 at home and won 3-1 on pens. I did make 11 changes and played my youth and reserve teams, who, despite winning their leagues last season, are pants! Also, i would just like to add, although i am only on 27th September 2008, i have not experianced many bugs or annoying things. My 3d works great, injuries are a minimum, results are superb and everything is going well. Only thing i would say is that when England play their games on Sept 13 and 17, the English players remain with Eng and are away on Int duty for the Prem games and CL games that are being played during this period, which is stupid! I know it is a known bug but it is highly annoying. (i played Utd and Chelsea before and after those dates so both team were at full strength when i whooped their asses)

ive had 3 games so far on fm09 Norwich, Oxford and Arsenal and all 3 have ended in failure, bottom of league after 23 games as norwich!!!

ive tried different tactics and players and formations but no success even as arsenal i was losing to stoke and wba at home?

i had good success mostly all the time on 08

anyone else struggling to succeed??

i'm at Wrexham in the BSQ, and have just gone top, going into March '09 (Season 1)!

just beat AFC Wimbledon in the Conference League Cup, to claim my 1st trophy since FM2006 (hardly played FM07/FM08 due to work), so am relatively "happy"!

my Wrexham team aren't really scoring goals (not in the top 4-5 goals scored) but are way best in fewest goals conceded, so i'm happy enough!

I think players won't perform as well for an unknown manager, so starting lower down the leagues, the players will be more inclined to perform (at least) to their best....

Wrexham have never really been "spanked" by any team, in fact we knocked Derby out of the FA Cup 3rd rnd (replay on pens), before losing to Sheff Utd in the 4th rnd (again replay on pens), so i'm delighted at the moment!

got no cash though, biggest signing was an AMR at £5k - LOL!

all this with a reasonably attacking 442, and with as many loan players as I can lay me hands on!

I am now playing as Swansea City in the championship after a torrid and frustrating season as manager of Tottenham where we finished 16th, ko'd in the carling cup 4th round by Bradford, ko'd in the fa cup 5-1 by leicester, and ko'd in the group stages of the UEFA cup.

So far as swansea, I've played 8 won 1 drawn 1 lost 6.

hmmmmmm

The biggest impact in terms of tactics, for me, was as follows:

1) Make sure a player always has someone to pass to (i.e. dont put them all on the same mentality, stagger it slightly)

2) If your Ass Man says there is a gap between midfield and defence, pull your defensively minded DM back a couple of mentality notches

Realising this has helped me no end. That and browsing wwfan's posts in the tactics forum. I have my 2 DC's at about 5 on the mentality notch, 2 FB's at 7, 1 MC at 7, 1 MC at 9, 2 wingers at 10, AMC at 10 and ST at 11.

Makes for a very tight formation that passes well and rarely concedes. I don't score as many as I'd like but the results are right.

In 09 the formations is very much secondary to getting the mentality right.

Oh? Well would you be so kind to upload your tactic(s)?

I'll send them directly to you over email, if you like. They're tiny files.

I don't believe it's the amazing tactics, though. It might be, but I think that ultimately the tactics work realistically, so with these particular tactics it becomes more about how good the players are than tactical deficiencies. But, you're most welcome to try them out for yourself, they might just do the job.

PM me with your email, and I'll give them to you.

By the way, the poster who mentioned your manager reputation may just have a point as well. I notice lots of players are using the wizard to add themselves to the game, and then wonder why their players at top clubs are upset. If you use the wizard, you're added without a reputation, so they wonder why you have been put in charge and start asking for transfers, etc. Thus, they will have low morale, and that will really affect your results.

Instead, you need to add yourself without the wizard, look top-right, and choose a level of experience that will work - such as International, if you're at a big club. Then you get no upset players at all.

Actually I think it is a bit more logical to work out a good tactic than it was in fm08. I have read thoroughly the 50+pages from wwfan in the tactics forum and feel I have really beneficiated from it. I have modified a 442 which I used in fm08 and had very inconsistant results with back then. I now have a very efficient attacking play, my players are pleased (i'm playing Rennes by the way) and all seems to be going well. Of course, I'm only in first season, so I shall wait for another few to see how things turn out. But so far as good!

IMO it feels so hard cos the ball hits the post at least once every game, when irl it only really happens once every couple of months.

Also even the 'awesomest' strikers seem to miss about 80% of the world's easiest straight 1:1s

I wouldn't complain if I wasn't actually able to create chances but it's just ridiculous when you have to change your tactics so your strikers are not faced with so many 1:1s.

I think this is the hardest FM yet. It seems quite a lot of people posting on the forum are struggling to win games.

Yes, I agree it's the most difficult FM yet especially for those click n go types. The tactical side takes quite a fair amount of thought and experimenting to get right. Thankfully, the amount of feedback available this time round takes a lot of the guesswork behind that. The motivation widget in the TV view is a gift from the heavens! I think for many people having trouble with top teams their trouble lies here instead of just tactics or player quality.

I've done pretty good so far, overachieving with Forfar playing a defensive minded 5-3-2 with sweeper and wing backs (good sweepers are hard to find in the lower reaches of the Scottish League let me say that..). Being a 4-4-2 man this is very novel for me. Got "accidentally" promoted via the playoffs with the best defense in the league.

WWFan's material is always a big help although I don't follow everything he recommends.

Still, I'm having some trouble setting up a target man in a 4-2-3-1 formation. It was ok for Barcelona (eventually) but it was such a nightmare with Liverpool I had to revert back to good ole 4-4-2 to save my career..

Any helpful tips on making a solo striker work? I've searched the Tactics forum and haven't found anything definitive yet.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=61144

Take a look at that. It should definitely help you improve.

I'm certainly finding it the hardest FM/CM to date. I just can't get a tactic for my Liverpool team to work despite reading the TT&F stuff (on the forums, not via the full download). I use the Rule of 1 or 2, so mentalaties are split across the team, but to no obvious benefit.

As for shot hitting the post/crossbar, I've had loads, including 3 in one game that I dominated over Man U... before losing 1-0.

The low striker match ratings are also not a help, as you don't have a clue whether your strikers are playing well or not. A goal or assist and they jump, and I appreciate scoring is a strikers main job, but I'm dropping quality players (Torres, Keane) as they're struggling to get ratings above 6.0

I'm all up for a challenge, but when my Liverpool team are hammered 4-1 by Wes Brom, and I have set up detailed tactics, I start to question things. I'm a CM/FM veteran, and I know old tactics may not work in each new version, but at the moment I'm pulling my hair out!!

i'm finding it about the same as previous FMs. torres is scoring loads for me. surprisingly enough keane only has 1 league goal in 14 .

i find the low match ratings for strikers a difficult one. it seems unless they score the match engine consideres that they aren't doing their job so gives them low ratings. doesn't matter though because they're still scoring.

FM 2007 and the editions before were easy

then pre-patched FM 2008 with that shot goal ratio thing other than that it was quite easy

now FM09...i just cant get used to it

cant get used to players with low long shot attributes shoot parabola and score, and how many times i conceded a goal from either the opponents keeper take a long goal kick while my 190cm tall defenders just let the ball fly over their heads let the striker go one on one with my keeper and score, or the ball bounce off the woodwork and hit my keeper head to become an own goal?

Maybe...

But i've now got the hang of it after about 12 games! Just takes time!

ive probably jinxed it now but im actually doin well at last with a basic formation i think i was tinkering to much! and i definalty think you need a dm at all times!