I just don't know anymore

I have followed SI and the Championship Manager/Football Manager since its conception. I have bought each game the day it came out and loved each one.

Up until FM 2007.

Thats where it went wrong for me. I have always had reasonable success as a manager, if i stick with a team i can build it up and usually go on to win trophies. All previous games i have won nearly every domestic league.

But Fm 2007 and 2008 annoy me intensely. It just makes no sense, there is no method. My first game, i can win the Champions league with D.Kiev easily, but for four seasons with Real Madrid never win the league.

I find myself wallowing in games on FM 2008 always close but never actually winning the league. There is no logic to the game, I end up losing to the most ridicolous teams in the most ridicolous matches (3 goals in the last 5 mins and the such).

Im just extremely frustrated, in previous games if u had a decent team with the best players you were on your way, but i fill my teams with stars and nothing.....

Im sick of being 4th in the league with Celtic in my 3rd season, behind Falkirk, ICT and Hibernian, its just wrong. Hammered 4-0 by Falkirk at home. With Jiminez, Matt Fernandez, Garay in the team.

Some people will post saying im just a rubbish manager, but i could hold my hands up if i truely felt that way. Its just the illogical results and the complete failure time after time in every league i participate in.

I can honestly say i have enjoyed SI games for the last 3-4 years because of this.

I have followed SI and the Championship Manager/Football Manager since its conception. I have bought each game the day it came out and loved each one.

Up until FM 2007.

Thats where it went wrong for me. I have always had reasonable success as a manager, if i stick with a team i can build it up and usually go on to win trophies. All previous games i have won nearly every domestic league.

But Fm 2007 and 2008 annoy me intensely. It just makes no sense, there is no method. My first game, i can win the Champions league with D.Kiev easily, but for four seasons with Real Madrid never win the league.

I find myself wallowing in games on FM 2008 always close but never actually winning the league. There is no logic to the game, I end up losing to the most ridicolous teams in the most ridicolous matches (3 goals in the last 5 mins and the such).

Im just extremely frustrated, in previous games if u had a decent team with the best players you were on your way, but i fill my teams with stars and nothing.....

Im sick of being 4th in the league with Celtic in my 3rd season, behind Falkirk, ICT and Hibernian, its just wrong. Hammered 4-0 by Falkirk at home. With Jiminez, Matt Fernandez, Garay in the team.

Some people will post saying im just a rubbish manager, but i could hold my hands up if i truely felt that way. Its just the illogical results and the complete failure time after time in every league i participate in.

I can honestly say i have enjoyed SI games for the last 3-4 years because of this.

I can honestly say I HAVENT enjoyed Si games for the last 3-4 years because of this*

Sorry for the typo

Interestingly enough, I found both FM07 and 08 much easier than 05 and 06. And a helluva lot quicker in the calculations, 06 was incredibly slow and 08 is the fastest game in the series so far.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Im just extremely frustrated, in previous games if u had a decent team with the best players you were on your way, but i fill my teams with stars and nothing..... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Indeed, now you need good tactics and motivating skills!

Seriously, this game has actually been easier for me than last years simply because I've put more effort into it, here, read this:

Communication and Psychological warfare

That'll help with the team talks, as for the tactics, make several variations of your favourite one for different situations, for example:

One for attacking when you're behind

One for general, simple play

One if you're trying to keep it solid at the back

One for holding on at the end of the game

and one for going all out attack at the end

I personally have more than that, but you get the idea, you really need to adapt in situations.

awwww.

im not sure why these get posted everyday, what are you execting? if you like it play it if you dont like it trade it in and get fifa or lma or something. where you can just buy the players with the best stats and win games easily, me i like a challenge, i like having to think of every aspect of the game, team talk, form morale, changing tactics when the opposition go attacking instead of doing nothing and saying "duhh what did i do wrong".

overall the games very good, im not blind, im not a fanboy so i wll say there are flaws, but no game in this genre even touches FM.

yer, its definately the most tactical game to date, i cant be bothered with it tho, its all too slow and too much effort to combat 4-2-4 formation, so i just let them equalise. to add, this is by far the hardest fm ever!

I'm not bashing FM, i still get excited every time i start up a new game (even if i know it will end in misery), and some of the new features are excellent. I dont want another football manager game, FM was and is the best out there, i just cant deal with the new ones.

Im just sick of putting hours of effort in and coming so close. I think fatboyjohnmulhern is right, its the most tactical game to date, and that has always been my major weakness. Im a good old 4-4-2, every game, every season. Although i played 4-2-3-1 wid Celtic and the AMC was rocking it, 20+ goals and crazy assists.

Im more than willing to listen to help.

well i have a saved tactic to combat 424 that didnt take me too long to work out and i just switch to this at around the 75th minute. and as long as my defence arent doing too shabby i close games. currently on a 21 game undefeated run streching from the end of the previous season to the beginning of this one im in, conceding around 10 goals in the process ( 6 of these from two crazy 3 - 3 draws) so im loving it and cant wait to get out of here and load it up.

I find it quite depressing that people still feel the need to come on these forums to moan about how rubbish they are at the game and then *SIGHS* blame the game for their shortcomings!

All you need to do to see that you're wrong is read around many posts. Plenty of people have great success on FM 07 & 08 without any sort of editing or exploiting the match engine (such as marking the GK at corners).

You have to tweak your tactics 2-3 times during games in order to win them - just like real life.

You have to watch the AI's formations for changes that may counter your current tactic.

You have to defend like trojans when you are one goal to the good otherwise the opposition will throw everything forward and you will concede.

You have to accept that the same tactic will not work all the way through the season.

You have to accept that if you are not able to win the Spanish league with Real Madrid and the SPL with Celtic YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING VERY WRONG.

Sorry to rant but the above are factsthat have been proven time and again, not least by the fact I have played the game since it came out and won leagues, cups and the adulation of fans and chairmen alike.

Visit the tactics forum and good player guide if you are struggling. I know it's a bit like peeking at the answers to a crossword, but if it helps then consider it advice from a fellow manager in a different league.

Good luck, and I hope you start to enjoy it again soon.

winning a top league on this game is alot, lot harder than it used to be. Ive only won la liga once and I was very lucky to do so

It's much harder, but it can be done. If anything, I found previous versions too easy once you got a decent squad built. Within three years at the top it was harder to get relegated that win it.

Since I rarely play as teams that are favourites to win their league, I find FM07 and FM08 much easier

Im not blaming it on the game, its just alot different to previous versions. I also hate it when people come in judging another persons managerial ability. I just find it hard to get into it knowing how successful i was in previous games. I always seem to be down to the last day with this version.