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FM13: Lower League Management - For Those who can Only Dream of a Trip to Old Trafford

SRL88

By SRL88,
in Good Player & Team Guide

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SRL88

SRL88

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FM13: Lower League Management

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Welcome to the Football Manager 2013 Thread for Lower League Management

Are you looking at starting a save in the less privileged areas of football? Well if you are, then this is the place to post.

Here in the Good Player & Team Guide, we understand the need for users to post their experiences and ask for advice on clubs in the lower leagues. The threads which tend to be created around here are obviously focussed on the bigger clubs with the lower league clubs very rarely having threads created. This for some users can be a pain. With this thread, it is aimed that people who have a save running as a club in the lower leagues are able to post freely just like people posting in the Club Guides.

What is classed as the lower leagues? Using England for example, this would be anything from League Two down to the Blue Square North/South, or in Spain the Segunda B Division's. In other words, it is the lowest set of playable leagues available on Football Manager. So, what are the lowest playable leagues in each nation which I would class as lower league?:

Belgium: Third Division

Brazil: Third Division

Denmark: Second Division

England: Blue Squad North/South

France: CFA

Germany: Third Division

Indonesia Third Division

Italy: Serie C2

Northern Ireland: Second Division

Norway: Second Division

Portugal: Second Division

Scotland: Third Division

Spain: Segunda B Division

Sweden: Second Division

Turkey: Second Division

These are simply the nations with at least three or more playable leagues in the nation. Other leagues have either one or two

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If you are looking for any further support on the Lower Leagues, there is assistance available via dirtyscarab's two threads:

FM13: Lower League Players

FM13: Lower League Staff

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For users who wish to view Lower League Management in further discussion, the forum's has a section for you to do so:

Lower League Managers

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Faille

Faille

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This is the first time I've started with a LL team, as I generally go with high division.

I selects Chemnitz in German third division, due to low expectations. First 2 seasons I did well, not only avoiding relegation but reaching mid table. My main focus was reducing the wage bill as I had too many players on 200k/yr + who were average or old. 3rd season went great and I narrowly missed out on being champions of the division, having to settle for 2nd place and promotion. Just started 4th season in D2, and hoping I can stay up long enough to improve the team.

Formation I've been using is a deep 4231, with 2 DM, CM and a LM/RM, with a lone striker up front. The focus was very much on defence, but this version of the game seems to favour scoring, so I've done pretty well on that score. Having the LM/RM seems to cut back on the crossing problem that people seem to be encountering.

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dirtyscarab

dirtyscarab

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My main focus was reducing the wage bill.

That's half the battle :)

I've managed lower league now for several versions of FM and I don't think I've ended season one not in debt. It's a really tough one. Getting rid of dead wood is the very first priority I have when starting a new LL save. The new 'Unwanted List' helps a lot with that. It seems that it's a little easier than previous years to get rid of players, although I still have to take a hit on a mutual release every now and again.

The way I look at it is this: Either keep a crap player on for a year or pay him his salary up front and release him thus freeing up some wage budget to bring in someone who will perform. 9 times out of 10 I do the latter and end up in debt. However I'll perform much better in the league so it's that balancing act you have at this level...

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SRL88

SRL88

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might be worth linking people to the LLM thread so they can experience that side of LLM! great stories and leads me to starting a LLM game every release! love those scandinavian countries!

This is a good shout fella and I have done so :)

Purely because of this thread I'm going for a Blue Square side save. Cheers SLR88 :)

Thank you. Glad you liked it dude :thup:

Im about to start in the last divison in sweden and can someone recommend what leagues and countrys to load to get the best out of the save pls =)

I havent got a clue on the spelling, but is it French Guadepole? They usually have some solid players for the lower leagues. I also find the African countries and possibly the Middle East??

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Dejay

Dejay

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All going well so far, just gone in to September (I do like deadline day, rather exciting) and things are going well. I'm finding it much easier to bring players in on loan - I managed to bring in Gunnar Neilson from man City!

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Faille

Faille

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Update:

After some harrowing moments I avoided relegation in season 4, and even made it to 13th (of 18), so quite comfortable.

I was hoping to cement my place in D2 in season 5. Instead I found myself flying high and coming 2nd going into the winter break. Sadly, one of my more promising players got injured for 3 months, and while I didn't think he was vital to our success, it seems he was since I went on a massive slump that only stopped when he returned. By then it was too late and I finished 4th, just outside the play off place.

Now I'm stuck in that annoying situation of whether I should continue as I planned with cementing my D2 status, or spend a little bit of money to push for promotion!

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dirtyscarab

dirtyscarab

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Update:

After some harrowing moments I avoided relegation in season 4, and even made it to 13th (of 18), so quite comfortable.

I was hoping to cement my place in D2 in season 5. Instead I found myself flying high and coming 2nd going into the winter break. Sadly, one of my more promising players got injured for 3 months, and while I didn't think he was vital to our success, it seems he was since I went on a massive slump that only stopped when he returned. By then it was too late and I finished 4th, just outside the play off place.

Now I'm stuck in that annoying situation of whether I should continue as I planned with cementing my D2 status, or spend a little bit of money to push for promotion!

Top effort :thup:

If you've got the patience I'd stick it out for another year. You don't want to be unprepared for the next level. Concentrate on strengthening your squad, easily win the league next season and then you'll stand in good stead to stay out of the relegation zone. That's the plan anyway :D

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Faille

Faille

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Yeah, that's great advice.

Big worry is that I know have 3 players worth over 1m, a fortune compares to the mostly 100-300k the rest are worth, so it would be hard to hold onto them if a big offer comes in (2.5m+), both in terms of them wanting to leave and me wanting the cash!

Hopefully no one wants to buy them.

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dirtyscarab

dirtyscarab

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Yeah, that's always a problem. You could try offering them new contracts a few weeks before the transfer window opens. If they sign, then it's unlikely they'll move...

The problem is your stupid chairman may override you and accept the offers if the cash is high enough. You're just going to have to keep your fingers crossed :)

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darrkespur

darrkespur

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I always like to start my game off unemployed and see who offers me a job and then see if I can work my way up. I don't commit to one club for all of my save, and will try to take higher job offers if I get them. I feel it's more realistic this way.

This time, I got offered the job at Pena Sport in the Segunda Division B2, midway through October of the first season. They have practically no budget, with 17k for wages and no transfer budget, but their goalkeeper and defenders are surprisingly decent, and they start with Eneko Romo, an old and expensive but still decent attacking midfielder, as well as two decent wingers the previous manager had brought in. some sneaky free agent signings steadied the ship in central midfield and up front, and I pulled away from the relegation zone into 5th place by February, although my squad tired a bit towards the end of the season and eventually finished 7th outside the playoff picture. My signing Saddik, was top scorer with 13 goals, mostly as an off the bench poacher to punish tired legs.

In the close season I let Romo go as he was too expensive, and brought in free agent AMs Mono and Javier Pastore's brother Juan, and a great french CB with a bad injury record - which thankfully has not broken down again. Shot out of the blocks in year two, with Mono scoring a bunch, and was in first place at Christmas and looking good for promotion, and only narrowly went out of the cup against Guadalajara. hit a nosedive in form after the christmas break after my goalkeeper broke his hand and had to scramble to find a decent young free agent replacement, but still hanging around in the playoff zone with 10 games to go, 4 points off the top. Now if only I can get back to my winning streak...

It's really hard to be a club with average attendance of 500 even when it's top of the league and a stadium capacity of just 3000! even with such a low wage budget, the directors have to inject around 350k every couple of months to keep the club afloat... Hoping if I can get promoted it'll give me a cash injection and increase the attendance.

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cel1234

cel1234

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I'm playing as Montrose just played 3 games in the league so far 7 points. Rangers up next i was just wondering who's playing in this league and how they getting on and against Rangers ????????

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Dejay

Dejay

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Carrying on from my earlier posts in here, my lower league game is going really well so far. I'm in December now and currently sitting top of the BSP and unbeaten surprisingly. We've had a few scares but been very strong on the whole. Really enjoying this to be honest.

This kid, is a beast at this level.

malbon.png

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SRL88

SRL88

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Jesus christ Dejay. 16 finishing at that level :eek:. He looks utterly insane...

I'm playing as Montrose just played 3 games in the league so far 7 points. Rangers up next i was just wondering who's playing in this league and how they getting on and against Rangers ????????

I couldnt answer that personally...but why not browse through the Ranger's thread and see what the guys in there are posting. Maybe that could help?!?!

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cel1234

cel1234

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I want to know how players are getting on with their team in 3rd division against Rangers. I managed a 2-2 draw at Ibrox. Leighton McIntosh is fantastic at this level. Played 6 scored 9.

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SRL88

SRL88

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I want to know how players are getting on with their team in 3rd division against Rangers. I managed a 2-2 draw at Ibrox. Leighton McIntosh is fantastic at this level. Played 6 scored 9.

There will probably be very few opting to play as anyone other than Rangers to be fair. A 2-2 draw at Ibrox is a cracking result :thup:.

Have you got a ss of McIntosh?

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cheltenhams_biggest_fan

cheltenhams_biggest_fan

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I normally start my game as either Worcester, Hereford or Cheltenham, but have opted to go for something different and I'm loading all South American leagues and going to try dominating there.

Other than the big established Brazillian and Argentinian clubs, I have no idea of anyone over there. Anyone got any suggestions of who to try?

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Faille

Faille

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Not really sure what to post in terms of giving helpful advice, but here's a quick update.

Season 6 and 7 continued pretty well. Changed my focus to more of a producing club, so I used a high rotation of players to everyone got good game time, which kept them happy and they developed well. Stayed comfortably in the top half without ever really challenging for promotion. Been making profits most year, so pushed to get training and youth training upgraded, as well as a small stadium expansion which hardly seemed worth (15k to 16.5k).

Season 8 though, I think my rotation had paid off since my young squad were starting to fill their potential, and I hadn't made any major changes to it from the previous season. Sadly Gladbach ran away with the D2 title, but I sat comforably in 2nd place the whole time and secure promotion to the top flight.

Now comes the scary part of trying to stay there and perhaps start planning towards winning some silverware.

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Faille

Faille

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Too much apparently!

TBh, I don't spend too much time analysing things, so I have it going while doing other things. I got luck with creating a tactic that seems to work well enough, so its just a matter of checking players performance to see if any need to be changed, but that's needed even less since I started my rotation system.

Steam tells me I've got 84 hours played time on it so far, so looks like 10 hours a season. Wonder how much quicker it would be if I was playing FMC since that is what they said their aim was for time / season.

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SteveUK

SteveUK

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Remember sometimes its better to organize your own friendlies as you might be able to squeeze more match fee out of them than the ones the computer automatically selected, which can give you some early cash to release players to free up more wages if you have unwanted players on your books. :)

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cel1234

cel1234

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13 games into the season 4 points behind Rangers and still unbeaten in the league just beaten Inverness in Scottish Cup 4th Round 2-1Rangers at Ibrox in the 5th Round. Playing 4-4-2. Leighton McIntosh played 19 scored 17 avr 7.52. Also Lloyd Young doing really well he has 11 assists avr 7.34 he attributes aren't the best but he's a great player.

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cheltenhams_biggest_fan

cheltenhams_biggest_fan

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I plumped for Santa Cruz in the Brazillian Third Division last night.

Currently 3rd in the Pernambuco state championship after 12 games. Board seem all happy. Managed to snag Eric Cantona as Director of Football too.

The Brazillian lower leagues seem easy ish to manage in as there are loads of loans/free transfers available and you can really negotiate low wages.

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dirtyscarab

dirtyscarab

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Carrying on from my earlier posts in here, my lower league game is going really well so far. I'm in December now and currently sitting top of the BSP and unbeaten surprisingly. We've had a few scares but been very strong on the whole. Really enjoying this to be honest.

This kid, is a beast at this level.

malbon.png

Don't forget to post stuff like this in the Lower League Players thread!

It seems to me that playing at this level is much harder this year around. It could be just me but in past years I've coasted to promotion in my first season. This year I'm struggling a little for some reason. Mainly due to the fact that the usual suspects in Reunion and Cuaraqo don't seem to want to join at BSS/BSN level. So the more gems you guys find the better!

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Braundjoh

Braundjoh

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Yeah, the Reunion thing was a bit of a blow to start with, although I guess it'll just make it a bit more unpredictable and entertaining in the long run. After about 14 games I'm 5th in the BSP as Dartford, made a few signings (Frank Sinclair and some other defenders) as well as a few younger players on loan. Got a guy from Blackpool whose name eludes me right now (Sutherland, perhaps) who has 16 pace and acceleration, and he's been pretty good.

But yeah, still in touching distance of the teams at the top, so promotion could happen. I'll get a screenshot at some point when I'm less lazy.

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Faille

Faille

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Talk about highs and lows with Season 9.

My goal was to stay up and feared that I wouldn't be able to, so didn't sign any new players so I wouldn't be saddled with their high wages when I went back down. Instead my team of D2ers, and a few who were with me from D3, made a blistering start and we went into the winter break in 6th position and I had dreams of Euro qualification in my first season.

Those hopes were soon quashed when the season resumed and I went a massive losing spree, dropping down the table. At one point I was sitting at 15th, just outside relegation playoff, but managed a couple of wins, especially one against the team in 16th, mean I climbed up to finish 12. Quite respectable I think.

Season 10 I felt fame enough to sign some new players to higher wages, but seems to be paying off as I'm making another strong start. Hopefully the winter break won't kill me again like it always seems to do.

I'll probably post again at the end of the season, but that's it since I'm no longer a LLM. Though if I start a new save, I'll be back!

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cel1234

cel1234

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I can't quite believe it and i don't know how i've done it but i'm 2 points behind Rangers in the League into Feb and beat them twice in a week both a Ibrox once in the league the other in the 5th Round of Scottish Cup i must be their big bogey team 2-1 and 2-0. Loving it at the mo at Mighty Montrose. Will post screen shots later !!!!!!!!!

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Dejay

Dejay

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Well I won promotion from the BSP with Kiddy. We pretty much walked the league. Our finances are shocking though so I wouldn't be too surprised if we end up in Administration soon. We were somehow spending £70K a month scouting..

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JamboJapp

JamboJapp

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I can't quite believe it and i don't know how i've done it but i'm 2 points behind Rangers in the League into Feb and beat them twice in a week both a Ibrox once in the league the other in the 5th Round of Scottish Cup i must be their big bogey team 2-1 and 2-0. Loving it at the mo at Mighty Montrose. Will post screen shots later !!!!!!!!!

Once the game comes out proper i'm def going to start a div3 game try to stop rangers or at least match their promotions. Should be a decent challenge no quite sure who to go but leaning towards Peterhead.

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cel1234

cel1234

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Here are the screenshots i promised

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag110/mcmillan9-john/ScottishThirdDivision_OverviewProfile.png

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag110/mcmillan9-john/Montrose_FixturesSchedule.png

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag110/mcmillan9-john/LloydYoung_OverviewProfile.png

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag110/mcmillan9-john/LeightonMcIntosh_OverviewProfile.png

6 games to go 1 point behind Rangers and still have them to play !!!

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