What are the strategies voor lower league management?

[Jorgen]

I have been playing this fantastic game for over 25 years now. I used to make my own tactics, but the last time I did that was sometime in 2006-2008. Back then you could still place the players on the pitch in relation to where the ball was. With the tactics I had at that time I was able to win the Copa Libertadores with Once Caldas, Millonarios and America de Cali from Colombia. After this I actually couldn't do that anymore and I thought that was a shame, but fortunately there were Fuss's and Knap's (and others) tactics on these forums, so I could continue having fun with FM.

In FM18 I had a long term save of 90+ seasons traveling along the Danube and Rhine from Eastern to Western Europe through Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. Several times I started here with clubs from the 2nd or 3rd level and after a few years we fought for Champions League glory.

It was here that I became hooked on managing in obscure countries and since then I have enjoyed coaching clubs in Afghanistan, Costa Rica, The Solomon Islands, Nigeria, the Philippines and New Zealand. It also became increasingly difficult to find good players or good scouts to find these players. That's why I've been using a scouting tool for years. While everyone can play the game their own way (and I love all the options available, for example the instant result button), I would like to get back to achieving more on my own without the help of downloaded tactics and tools.

This week I started lower league management in the England Level 10 database.

I also started a savegame with this Caribbean database

I found that managing clubs in the English lower levels (Ringwood FC in the Wessex League Divison 1) and in the Caribbean (Sandy Point FC in Saint Kitts and Nevis) is very, very hard. Most players have a CA and PA far below 20. It's almost impossible to find someone who makes your team better. If they want to come at all. Even with the downloaded tactics and the scouting tool, after 7 seasons I was actually no better than at the beginning. In fact, I was relegated again, got fired from another club and had no idea how I could go about becoming successful.

Of course I understand that it is not easy in real life to win the continental champions league from the English 10th level, or from Saint Kitts and Nevis. But this remains a game in which this is possible, as evidenced by all the successes here on the forum. Ofcouse I can start in the English Championship of Italian Serie B to have a bit of a challenge to win the title, but I want to start with a very small club.

Long story short; How do I approach team management / tactics / scouting / finances to turn a very small team into a very successful club?

[V50]

In the words of wise poet Zealand, Loans! If you can. Having a senior affiliate also helps in that regard. You'll only every get free transfers, so just mass-trialling any free transfer who might play for you is a good strategy- don't forget if you click the cog in the player scouting area you can set it to include players who are "unsure". If your team is pure amateur this is good as it won't cost you much either way, and with a promise or two you can sometimes punch above your weight.

Sometimes the best strategy is patience. Ask for junior coaching all the time - it's relatively cheap and can significantly raise the CA of your youth prospects, meaning you can get 1 or two players straight into your first team.

Finally, there tends to be a meta tactic. Knapp has a tactics thread with OP tactics of you lose your patience but generally a standard 4 4 2 or 4 3 3 will work if you're a bit attacking.

[Jorgen]

@V50 Thanks! I'll look into loans and trials. Normally I use a Knap tactic and it works on most levels, even if they are made for PSG and City. These last twoo saves were just crazy hard.

I was very patient. After 6 or 7 seasons it was just not signifcantly better. I did it as a holiday save (so buying the players and setting the tactic) but that works on other levels too. (won the CONCACAF Champions Cup and CAF Champions League with that)

I will probably start a new save again and try to implement your tips! and tricks.

[dieu]

As V50 said. Loans and free transfers are the way to go. 
Make sure to scout every youth player from bigger leagues, (PL, Championship etc.) and sign the ones you can get when their contract expire. (Provided they are not completly useless).
Focus on young players and plan several years ahead! Focus more on PA over CA when you sign players. You want players than can grow with you as you go up the ladder. 

Do trail farming! (Most contract expire on the same date. When that happends you offer trial to as many players as you can. You will find a few gems this way.

 

[HanziZoloman]

@Jorgen you should check the Youth Academy Challenge here, they do this kind of challenge without extra players and it works. 

I am doing this kind of challenge the first time and learnt tons on my way up from VNS into Championship, I am in the year 2061 though. It's really hard to find that winning formula for a player like me who is relatively unexperienced in how to make a team work and overperform on a consistent basis. 

[Jorgen]

@dieu @HanziZoloman Though I didn't do loans in these saves, I did buy everyone on a free transfer. The best ones that wanted to come were taken away on the same free transfers at the end of each season. At the 10th level of the English pyramid, no players from the PL, or Championship wanted to play for me.

In my previous saves in Serbia and the Philippines I could buy young players (18 and below) that made my team better in a few seasons. The other teams weren't buying them, as I could give them real contracts. So after a few years my first eleven became better and better. But on the 10th level in England I have no way to keep those players as they move on a free.

[dieu]

29 minutes ago, Jorgen said:

@dieu @HanziZoloman Though I didn't do loans in these saves, I did buy everyone on a free transfer. The best ones that wanted to come were taken away on the same free transfers at the end of each season. At the 10th level of the English pyramid, no players from the PL, or Championship wanted to play for me.

In my previous saves in Serbia and the Philippines I could buy young players (18 and below) that made my team better in a few seasons. The other teams weren't buying them, as I could give them real contracts. So after a few years my first eleven became better and better. But on the 10th level in England I have no way to keep those players as they move on a free.

That's why I wrote etc.. If your rep is so low that you can't sign youth players from the championship then you go down and do the same for League One. Then League Two and so on. Even a youth player from a League Two teams, is probably good enough to make your team better.  I would also load the scottish, irish and Welsh leagues and try to find players there as well.

[Jorgen]

24 minutes ago, dieu said:

That's why I wrote etc.. If your rep is so low that you can't sign youth players from the championship then you go down and do the same for League One. Then League Two and so on. Even a youth player from a League Two teams, is probably good enough to make your team better.  I would also load the scottish, irish and Welsh leagues and try to find players there as well.

I got that 😉 I've loaded only the English level 10 database at the moment, but with 150k players. I could however load those leagues too, and even the Caribbean ones that are eligible for England

[jcafcwbb]

Another thing I have found helpful it to keep it simple in the roles department.

Lower League players are not good enough to play the convoluted roles - I only use CM, DM, BBM and BWM. I only use wide men as wingers and none of that fancy-dan inverted stuff. Target Men or Pressing Forwards rather than False 9s or Deep Lying Play Makers.

[Jorgen]

2 hours ago, jcafcwbb said:

Another thing I have found helpful it to keep it simple in the roles department.

Lower League players are not good enough to play the convoluted roles - I only use CM, DM, BBM and BWM. I only use wide men as wingers and none of that fancy-dan inverted stuff. Target Men or Pressing Forwards rather than False 9s or Deep Lying Play Makers.

Strange thing is, when I used such things in NIgeria and The Philippines (both highest level) it worked. And when I used it at the 3rd level of Serbia and 2nd of Romania, it worked too. A lot of those players were afwful. But perhaps those players in the English lower leagues are so terrible that they don't know the difference between their left and right foot.

[Delicate Dave]

One of the things many people ignore when they manage in the lower leagues is money, trying to generate it. I recently did a blog on how to generate money during the pre-season.

Most people seem to think pre-season is all about fitness but I've found that pre-season can be very important and you may be missing a trick ignoring it.  If you ignore it pre-season can cost your club money, in fact, it will but if you look to earn money from playing bigger teams the income will help your club, and in turn, that help you.  As long as you have a reasonably happy squad the is no danger in playing bigger club pre-season and in fact, it's a fact that when players play against better players they get better. Of course, you don't want to lose five games 5-0 so mix in a few home games against locals who you pay very little to earn from the gate money. 

As an example - I'm currently managing Cambridge, just took the into the championship but before that, I was earning £300k from the preseason games. This is big money for a club that give you £1k transfer budget :-)  Popped a few images on to help explain what I'm talking about. For those that never look at that this sort of stuff, pre-season if you play away you receive a fee, if you play at home you pay the club who come a fee so as long as the amount you pay is less then the gate money you increase club income and the big club games can be picked up by tv which bring in more cash. 

Don't know if this is useful or not, been playing FM for years but never bothered with forums before.