Backroom Advice

[SynysterGates17]

is it just me or at times can the BA be absolutely useless. i mean i expected it to be full of tactical advice but instead all its tells you is young players who you should scout.

if your on a bad run of results and you don't know how to get back on track the last thing you want to hear about is young players. i would prefer it if the advice you got was like "this is the formation we should be using" or " i don't think XXXX should be playing in that position" or "XXXX should be playing a different role"

what do you guys think? and if you agree they SI get sorted!!

[KDR]

Tactical advice does come up. IIRC it's a day or two before a game, and if you forget to look, you get a prod by the ass man telling you there's info the want to share.
In any case, any suggestion made is exactly that. Just because the ass man suggests a different tempo, a different formation (I'm in Brazil, and keep getting 4-2-2-2 suggested instead of my preferred formations of 4-1-3-2 or 3-1-2-3-1 (anchor plus 2 CMs plus 2 advanced wide players and trequartista with a lone striker) or whatever, it doesn't mean it'll improve/change results.
Not seen a suggestion over roles, though. That said, I've not seen anything saying what their best roles are in the actual game anyway, though I could have sworn there was something about it on the demo.

[olrion]

I too find the assistant feedback quite tedious. Don't get me wrong, the concept is good and a genuine part of football management, but it seems a little too technical and for people who struggle to get to grips with the game (myself included) may take every piece of advice literally.

Your assitant says "we tend to conceed goals between 34-42 minutes" and "Our squad is one of the shortest in the league", but does signing a load of tall players and playing defensive for 8 minutes late in the first half lead to positive results? Does it heck!

With a bit of work it could be really beneficial.

You will probably notice that on the assistant feedback menu there is a 2nd opinion box, where one of your head coaches disagrees with everything your assistant advises!

The strangest segment of the assistant feedback is the "your assistant thinks the team should get together to resolve their issues" and when you click yes there is no actual interaction as to what is discussed. So, players come out of the meeting with either a positive or negative outcome even though all you have done is called the meeting and the computer does the rest. As much as team talks and press conferences are tedious, team meetings should be approached in the same way, so you can actually control the outcome of the meeting.

[brambleten]

The only thing I have against this feature is constantly getting the same staff members recommended to me week in week out. its as if the current staff (who are much better than the suggestions) just want to be sacked and replaced

[KDR]

Tbh I ignore the 'we tend to concede' one. It pays more to look at the advice on when the opponents score ('X tend to score between 1-15 minutes', 'Y tend to score between 60-75 minutes'). Even then, I might not pay that much attention to it - I prefer to let them worry about what I'm going to do (even if it is a computer with fairly limited AI!). I take no notice of the 'we tend to score' advice, too. Again, I look at when the opponents tend to concede, and then throw the kitchen sink at them during that period. It usually works. Either way, though, everything depends on what's going on during the match.

Second box: It's mixed for me. Any disagreement and I'll dismiss the advice. By the same token, if they agree but I don't, I dismiss the advice.

I don't bother with team meetings either, tbh. I found them counter-productive in FM2009, so avoid them now. Anyone out of form or with low morale and just not doing it gets hooked, even if it means giving a youth team member a chance he scarcely deserves. No precious ninnies having a whine in my dressing room! If they work hard and I'm doing the tactical bit right, they'll win. If they don't work hard, they won't...and will end up being shown the door. It's them or me. It's not going to be me. lol.

[KDR]

The only thing I have against this feature is constantly getting the same staff members recommended to me week in week out. its as if the current staff (who are much better than the suggestions) just want to be sacked and replaced

Yes, I agree. It makes no sense for an Ass Man to come to you with a suggested Ass Man, which has happened to me before. It is as good as saying 'Sack me'.

[BurakUeda]

Finding it very useful.
I guess it all depends how good your staff, especially AssMan is.
I signed quite a few talented players, and coaches from backroom advice.

There is another "pre-match advice meeting". You will find tactical advice there. Also get a scout with high tactical knowledge, technique and jPA and assign him to next opposition. He will give you advice about tactics and dangerous players, also injured unavailable players of the opposition etc.

[dfa120374]

You will probably notice that on the assistant feedback menu there is a 2nd opinion box, where one of your head coaches disagrees with everything your assistant advises!

This is only true once a game has been started and within the first few months of your first season. With my Celtic save, I noticed this quite a lot and wasn't sure on what to do with the advice that was being given, especially if it was to do with training the player on a specific move. If you look at the "Club Players Knowledge", "Tactical", "Training" etc on who is actually giving the advice on the right of the screen you can compare it to the person giving the second opinion and see who has the best in those areas needed and you can judge from that. At the start I would have someone who gave me advice that knew the players but my assistant manager didn't and was pretty much disagreeing with a lot of things and a lot of the time I ignored the assistant manager's opinion because he didn't have the knowledge on the players but the person giving the advice did. So, for instance, if it was a training move and one of my coaches advised that a player was to come deeper for the ball and his training and tactics were higher than the person giving the second opinion (which tended to be my assistant manager), I would have ignored the second opinion and went with the advice given.

As the season goes on and over time, your assistant manager gets to know the players, builds tactical knowledge, training knowledge etc and it goes up and I find that a lot of the time once a coach suggests something my assistant manager now agrees with it a LOT more than he did at the start because he's built up the player knowledge, has built up his tactical knowledge, training knowledge etc. When I first started the game my assistant managers "Club Players Knowledge" was nothing. Now, coming up for half way through my second season with Celtic, his knowledge on the players is full. Just takes time for new assistant managers and any new coaches to build up the club players knowledge and the training etc just like in real life - new staff need to build up a working knowledge on the players of the club, how they train and perform and how they perform on the pitch.

Just like yourself - once you have played the game for a bit, you will get to know the players, get to know what their strengths and weaknesses are and how they perform on the pitch and in matches, you'll build up your knowledge on it all and you'll be able to decide if you want to go with the person giving the advice, go for the second opinion (if it doesn't agree with the advice given) or you can go with your own knowledge on the players and do what you think will help the player.

Remember - it's just advice - you don't have to go with it and plenty of times I've not gone with it as (depending on the advice given) I haven't agreed with it because I know the players and I know what I want them to do (or not do).