Lower League Management is tough!

I'm playing Blue Square league for the first time ever. I'm playing with Farsley and playing as a manager with only Sunday League football experience.

We started the season brightly with 4 wins but we've slumped to 17th in the league now. I cannot get the players motivated at all! I tried changing the tactics but nothing is working. Any ideas on how to change this around? I'm always winning until to 80-90minute mark, then the opposition always equalize/score a winner.

I'm also trying to get Moral up. Asked the captain to discuss underperforming but I got *no* feedback from him at all. I praise away draws at stronger teams and praise wins and individual performances. I have worked hard on the tactics and read the TT&F by the guys from fm-britian.

Any ideas? Thanks lads

Should this be in LLM?

However late goals could be due to Fatigue and concentraction.

Reduce Training for any players getting overtired. Check your players concentration attributes and morale will improve with wins.

Thanks man, will put the thread in LLM subsection

I started with Harrogate and got them promoted first time of trying, but then again they have a decent squad which just needs to be topped up. Also I was given a semi-pro reputation.

In my game, Farsley finished down the bottom half of the table as well, so their squad doesn't seem to be that good.

What do I do?

Get an assistant with decent tactical knowledge and listen to his advice and try to implement the changes he suggests

Keep tactics simple and tight. LL footballers aren't the most intelligent players

Keep training light

Get a parent club and loan a couple of players long term

Try and get a couple of short term loans throughout the season (Leeds are normally quite generous)

Attend the trial days and sign one or two higher league cast offs

The first season is generally more difficult, but if you survive that then you can have a clear out at the end of the season when contracts are up.

Keep trawling the reserves of league teams for players suddenly not needed (Tip, Nathan Jarman at Grimsby

But most importantly be patient

thanks a mill, trying hard to be patient

Thanks man, will put the thread in LLM subsection

No DON'T!!

Or at least, if you have, don't go back and check it - they don't take kindly to anyone asking for tips.

Basically, you've got to slug it out with the meagre resources you have. Don't chop and change tactics too often or the players will never learn what to do.

My tip is this - go to the tactics forum and mug up on basic tactical theorems (download and peruse the TT&F .pdf booklet if you have the time and inclination). Once you've worked out how to get the squad to perform as well as they can within their limitations, you'll be on solid ground.

Oh sorry, you've done that - pay attention to how to close the game out with your knackered defenders - defend deep and narrow, waste time etc etc. It will come good!

Redditch for me

started unemployed , offered the job in October 08 and finsihed 11th in BSN and 1st round of FA cup

2nd season , 14th in league after 5 games and just beat Worcester in 1st round of conference cup

I always start with BSP side Crawley Town, in previous versions we were deducted points (FM07 -6 points, FM08 -10 points) but i have never struggled as much as I am now on FM09

Season 1 Prediction - Midtable

Actuality - Just survived relagation

I am halfway through my second season, £650,000 in debt, and sitting at the foot of the table. Nothing I do seems to be working out for me, its great fun!!!

Don't buy players and keep tab on your wages being under 75% of your cap(release/sold some if you need), bonuses are LLM killer, free loans are your best friend .Play very simple, your players are not creative and will never be on that that level.You have to rely on your own tactics, don't bother with someone else's tactic's.

LLM in British leagues is really easy, since you get huge starting pool of good players for that level and decent income.You can pretty much walk thru the BSN/BSS league with starting players.If you think that's hard, try some exotic leagues like Turkish 2B or Brasilian C and see.

Ive started with Beylerbeyi a Turkish Second Division team. As they have Galatasaray as their parent club I have been getting wonderful youngsters coming through. I am currently 4th in the table in Jan and aiming for promotion.

Harland and Woolf Welders; now THAT is a tough job! Gates of around 150 who all seem to pay a quid to get in so a squad of players on £30 a week each (approx average) is ruining us. Nobody wants to come on loan and we can't afford any coaches.

£178k in the red and plummeting.

Into my third season and hovering above the relegation zones of Division 2 each time but the board have offered me a new contract on £170 a week! Maniacs.

Just hoping to have a miracle season with some of my free transfer youngsters sometime in the near future so I catch the eye of one of the larger Northern Irish clubs or maybe somewhere else.

3 key things that have helped me with Hyde (now in season 6) which i now have in league 1 and sitting at 6th (tho really struggle to stay there).

First: Loans, maximize your free loan players. this probably the first season where i am player less than the max 5 loan players in my first 11. And usually the 5 loan players are my best 5 on the pitch. GK is very important if you dont have a good GK, make sure to loan one for the season. Usually, i loan 1GK, 1DC, 1MC and 1ST for full season and then use the 3month loanees to fill other gaps. Very important to get loanees with high CA rather than just high PA. Biggest mistake to waste a loanee spot on a wonderkid that has suckee CA.

Second: Free transfers, my first season with Hyde i really didnt do much since they had already signed up all their player for the year and had very little wages left over and i had no money to release players and there was no market for them. But second season onwards i have relied very heavily on free transfer (infact i did not sign any player other than free transfer till 6th season). Use scouts to look for players. you can get scouts for very cheap (amateur or part time contracts) in the lower leagues.

Third: As others have said, use simple tactics and dont change them once set. Go for direct passing since pass would suck anyways even in short games.

Akaz

PS> The last week of June (June 23 -30) is the most important week for a LLM IMO. thats when the best candidates for free transfer and loans are available. Make sure you have prepared for the week before hand by have atleast 2x to 3x the number of player in your sight (and already scouted) than you actually need. And then try to get them signed in that week.

keep in mind I am very far from an authority - both new to football in general - and very new to FM

What I did was immediately ask for a parent club and then basically asked for just about all their decent players on their reserve side - as well as a few unused players on their senior squad.

I am playing as Braintree and it's been a tough haul. Hardest part for me was scoring. It took me forever to get a decent striker that could get the job done - once I got him and combined with a great backline (thanks to parent club Ipswich) for my league the light seemed to turn on and I have been playing great.

My tactic is basically the same home or away - basic 4-4-2 target man - run onto ball type. I tweak it a little bit depending mostly on the pitch conditions as they vary very much from game to game. I would say I am mostly defensive focused and that's why I don't have to change too much for away matches. I look to play a possession game and try to find a good long ball to set my striker free. It seems to be working because while some DC have good physical attributes in this league - most of them are very poor in recognition and reaction type stuff and my striker blows by them.

I also did a player search and let my AM filter out unreasonable players. Don't take this as doctrine though. Take notice of what league level he is telling you is appropriate - then I went and looked a league above and scoured the reserve teams. It's time consuming but if it pays off it can pay off big.

Forget transfers - I had a 2k transfer budget. Free transfers are the way to go if you got that way at all.

I have been slowly dumping players as their contracts ended, but those that I wanted to keep - I tried to sign for full time contracts if the desired salary wasn't that much different. No clue if this will kill me in the end or not - but figure the added coaching/conditioning will pay off. Though that automatic 25% raise at promotion really has me fretting if I do succeed in going up a level.

The single biggest frustration I have is getting decent coaching/training. My club only allows me one coach and I have a player/coach AM who isn't really that great but costs too much to get rid of, plus he's my captain. I am hoping as I play better - and attendance goes up - and thus revenue they will allow me to expand to at least get a dedicated fitness coach and GK coach.

For all it's frustrations - it's been a blast and I am hooked. Good luck.

I had a real tough time with Havant and Waterlooville. I was sacked midway into the season

Hi there one thing i would like to know is the following

> If my wages are 3 grand over a week then will it be likely that i get sacked or go bust?

>Will the board get annoyed and sack me?

Yes to all questions as 3k over budget per week is 150k per year which is a fortune in some leagues. I would arrange 'more high profile' friendlies for the first team during pre-season and for the reserves during the season. Good luck with it.

Finances are extremely important in the lower leagues and you must be able to control them very well. Try to cut down on your wages by clearing the deadwood, arranging some friendlies if you can and try to negotiate new contracts with some players to reduce the wage costs. Be careful though, as not every player is willing to take a wage cut.

Should this be in LLM?

You shouldn't be telling people to go into LLM when the post they will be making in there will be breaking the forum rules. I don't see anything wrong with what he asked in here.

Brazil lower league is one of the hardest challenge. But also the Swedish second division. I had also a very good save with the last version starting in Northern Ireland. And finances are important. More than in previous incarnation of the game. Not overdraw the wage budget can save your job - at last for a while.

Should this be in LLM?

Nope - LLM forum is specifically for stories about your trials and travails using a lower-league club. They specifically forbid tactical discussion, advice, and player naming, so a thread like this qualifies as "General" not "LLM Forum".

I'm playing Blue Square league for the first time ever. I'm playing with Farsley and playing as a manager with only Sunday League football experience.

We started the season brightly with 4 wins but we've slumped to 17th in the league now. I tried changing the tactics but nothing is working. Any ideas on how to change this around? I'm always winning until to 80-90minute mark, then the opposition always equalize/score a winner.

So, from the 80th minute on, what are you doing tactically?

I have a tactic that I have set up very specifically to counter-act the opposition 4-2-4. Its still a 4-4-2, which is what I normally use, but the back four get some pretty explicit instructions: "Stay Back" on all Set Piece instructions. Forward Runs "Rarely" on the fullbacks. The basic idea is, I don't want them to get caught forward ever, under any circumstances!

I also find that the two-man midfield is pretty vulnerable to OI: Tight Marking; by that point, they should be fairly tired, and its tough for them to get open. Denying them space can cause the oppo. defenders to try long balls, which your four-man-backfield can deal with.

I cannot get the players motivated at all!

I'm also trying to get Moral up. Asked the captain to discuss underperforming but I got *no* feedback from him at all. I praise away draws at stronger teams and praise wins and individual performances.

Motivation is a tricky one. A lot of the things that feel intuitively correct to do with team-talks are missing some points - they tend to work well enough when the team is winning, but don't do so well when a team is struggling.

I highly recommend Communication and Psychological Warfare as a starting point on learning the Psychological side. If that doesn't feel like enough, you might try Wolfsong's Guide to Teamtalks; some folks find the latter a bit too "spoiler"-ish. Personally, I recommend reading it at a time when you won't be able to play the game for several hours afterwards, and then never referring to it again. That lets your brain distill it back down towards a "gist" rather than a formula, but you do get to make use of the tremendous amount of information there.

Using the techniques described in both of those, I managed a Croatian club that was horrendously out of its depth in the Croatian top division. We went all the way to March before nabbing our first win .. but I kept Morale at the Good / Very Good / Superb level the entire time, and was genuinely pleased with the amount of effort the lads were putting out in the match engine.

. . .

Some non-communication things to consider, however:

Veteran players with a Professional, Determined, or Iron Willed personality are much less susceptible to negative Morale effects of defeat.

Young players, and players with an Ambitious or Temperamental nature, are much more susceptible to negative Morale effects.

In older versions of the game, you could just toss out 11 young guys with talent and expect them to win; in this version, they will be very streaky, much as you've described. I find having a veteran "backbone" - GK, DC, MC - is crucial to success.

Same bit with your Captain. In older versions, you could select by Influence, and call it "good enough". In the modern version, however, you've really got to put a lot of thought into it. I use Influence to generate a short list - maybe four to eight candidates - but then I vet a bunch of other factors to see whom I want. It is rarely the person with the most Influence, and that doesn't really matter, because your Captain will gain Influence the longer he holds the role.

Instead, I look at:

- Age - older players command more respect from other players

- Tenure - the longer he's been with the club, the more other players respect him

- Language - he better speak the dominant language at the club fluently

- PPM's - he can't have "Argues with the Ref" PPM, he'll encourage it among others

- Composure - he'll help the other players avoid yellows for arguing with the ref

- Teamwork - obviously, he needs to be a team player

- Work Rate - if he's hard working, he'll inspire hard work

- Determination - affects his behavior when trailing or in a losing streak

- Personality - prefer the personalities listed above.

Selecting using those criteria - and obviously, nobody's perfect, so I have to make my best decision by blending all of the factors into one gestalt - I've never had the club "revolt" against my selection. I don't think I'd change players mid-season, but you might look at it next year when the option comes up.

Nope - LLM forum is specifically for stories about your trials and travails using a lower-league club. They specifically forbid tactical discussion, advice, and player naming, so a thread like this qualifies as "General" not "LLM Forum".

That's not true either. There is a stories forum for stories. LLM only permits short updates for each season.

my profit is showing in the red but my actuall balance is 90k in the bank

i have arsenal as feeder club,but they wont accept more than one friendly.What could i do about this?

The players i have are needed. I Dont Have a huge squad but managed to get good players but they are on like 500 a week etc.

Any more advice on the above stuff i have said?

cheers

I suggest to arrange friendlies between your reserves and other teams reserves - both against domestic teams and foreign teams.

does friendlies against my reserves generate cash?

how do u choose like say boltons reserves?

I seem to only select bolton normal team

Could anyone recommend me a LLM team that wouldnt be too difficult , mainly one that has a good shout of promotion and hasnt got a huge expectation , as this would be the first time ive gone lower than league 2 , as i usually play at Championship level or the spanish leagues for some reason , Thanks to any replies!

does friendlies against my reserves generate cash?

how do u choose like say boltons reserves?

I seem to only select bolton normal team

Playing against your own reserves won't generate much cash. To get a friendly with Bolton reserves, click on Bolton reserves squad screen and at the bottom should be the option of 'ask for friendly' or something like that. I'll do a screenshot when i'm next on the game if you haven't found it before then.

Could anyone recommend me a LLM team that wouldnt be too difficult , mainly one that has a good shout of promotion and hasnt got a huge expectation , as this would be the first time ive gone lower than league 2 , as i usually play at Championship level or the spanish leagues for some reason , Thanks to any replies!

When you're asked to choose a team go to the league your interested in and click on the brief details of each club - you'll see the media expectations - just go for one that's predicted to come 1st.

Thanks i managed to get it sestig

Only generates 3 grand and i need to pay the club at least 1

Is this not right

Its hard finding a club to say yes

But got a few prem club reserves so thats decent i suppose