Slider Manager 2009.

Footballing logic has gone out the window in favour of nicely balanced slider settings, this game is so frustrating, I cannot make sense of it. It has nothing to do with football any more, it's just finely adjusting the slider settings until you get favourable results. Playing online a friend and I are both committed to using 352's and attempting to get them to work, after 3 seasons he's on top of the league with a rubbish squad and I, with a galactico 11 am 7th despite trying every variation i can think of to get this 352 to work. There is no information on what key thing i am obviously doing wrong to take this freak squad to such miserable efforts, and my friend seems to have hit on a magic tactic whereby any player can slot in and get an average rating of 7.5+, including a 37 year old del piero..

It is mind bending- what is the secret formula, how does one make sense of this game?

Looks like you should ask your friend?

Looks like you should ask your friend?

WHS, ask your mate for some tips, he is obv better than you at playing FM

If you want help with tactics, then the Tactics forum is probably your best bet

well that's the thing isn't it.. he's better at "playing fm"... it's a nightmare- either you try to work it out yourself using normal logic and fail miserably, or you use a pre-mad tactic and basically you're just pressing continue and there's no point.. I've read WWFan's thing and still it's bizarroland.

Normal logic works fine for me.

As a top-flight EPL team: 442 - One fast, skillful striker, one big one holding up the ball, one set to attacking, one to normal (links up play); balls throught the middle, one MC defensive, forward runs rare, one normal, forward runs often, creativity high; fast, skillful wingers (17pace minimum), run with ball, crossing often; full-backs team mentality, start on forward runs "often" but can change; CBs on defensive, zonal marking (unless up against a lone ST), forward runs mixed. Couple of othe minor settings, but essentially this works for me 9/10 times against weaker teams. Against stronger teams I may do something different.

Combine it with what the sliders mean in "real terms" and how they would affect play in real life.

I know it will never be perfect - it's a computer game after all - but it does follow footballing logic once you play around more with the sliders and perhaps watch a couple of games on full detail.

It could be any number of reasons that your Galactico team under-performs; too many different languages, team harmony, your tactical coach may prefer 4-4-2, or - more simply - you may not have the best combination of players to run a 3-5-2. I had better success with an underfunded Newcastle than my Man City game, playing very similar tactics both games.

Add into this that no tactic is perfect and no tactic will go unchallenged for HALF a season, let alone an entire game, and we all have to work harder as managers these days.

A long way from perfect, but it's a long way from impossible too.

This is probably obvious, and you probably do it anyway, but just in case...

Check out your assistant manager feedback during games. This will help to highlight problems with your formation.