Do other managers make a difference to teams?

[WojciechZed]

We know that there are obviously various factors to how well teams do, with the strength of their squad and the quality of the players in it, playing a vital role, but I wonder how much impact the AI managers have in FM? I mean, does it make that much difference to how good the AI teams are, or is it one of the less important factors in FM?

For example IRL Sam Allardyce has never been relegated. He might even be seen as something of an expert in keeping teams up. If he was appointed at a team in serious relegation turmoil near the end of a season, is there a high chance the team would stay up because of his appointment? Would he be the one that makes the real difference? Or is the manager merry-go-round just there to keep things plodding along, but who is in charge doesn't actually affect the quality of a team's performance that much, not counting yourself.

[AytchMan]

I very much doubt that there's a "Rescue Relegation" trait hidden away in the AI managers' repertoire.  So I wouldn't count on the AI Big Sam to save a club.  But, generally speaking, I'd guess that AI managers play a small role in the performance of their team.  The AI managers do have some listed traits and tactical preferences that should affect how the team plays.  But I expect their effect on their team is considerably less than that exerted by humanoid managers.

[FlorianAlbert9]

My impression is that the only thing that matter is if AI manager's tactics preference Is good in the match engine or not.

Then if the manager has 20 ca or 200 make no difference at all. 

It's only an impression with no real test (a part one not so accurate when i put a 200 manager in top side in Hungary, but he failed)

Edited September 11, 2019 by FlorianAlbert9

[Svenc]

It is debatable whether the game at all simulates "top class" management all too well. So that's a bit of a toughie. For what it's worth, I had once edited Pep, Mou and Co. to Relegation strugglers in various leagues and they got relegated on multiple simulations. Likewise, putting an unproven Manager at the whelm of the top echolon Clubs they still performed.
 

Then again…  https://www.theringer.com/2018/6/7/17436854/2018-world-cup-soccernomics-interview-germany-usmnt-russia
My opinion is that within the history of the game there may have been indeed been Managers who you could call "specialists" when in Terms to battling Relegation, etc. No less as their "Reputation" had them Always getting called up by clubs when Things turned sour (so the Wheel kept on Spinning...) But think About it; just a couple more Point Drops (which in Football is Always a probability…), and their "specialist tag" would have faded as that streak would have been broken. Even if Things where wholly random (which they aren't…) we'd still see Patterns, wouldn't recognize them for their randomness and tell stories about them and give the protagonists names proper. 

FM isn't quite like Football. The human Player in particular  can both have a big Edge and a significant disadvantage over his AI Peers in all alreas of the game, which isn't quite the case in real Football Management. Real Managers _roughly_ see eye to eye, and are working hard on gaining a few percentage headstart -- which, in my opinion, the AI in-game as such doesn't have over any of their Peers, at least not by much. They oft struggle with fairly Basic Things tacitcal, as such Things aren't coded proper into the game and all an AI Needs to do is "Picking" a wrong role in the tactical tweaking puzzle...

[lex311085]

I would say no. I love his game but its not as intricate as the developers make out. I once put all of mourinho's attributes such as man management, motivation etc down to 1 as an experiment and he still won the league comfortably with united. As someone said above I think it also comes down to the tactics and well they work with the match engine. Lots of times Ive seen on here people complaining that Pep isn't as good as irl and always gets sacked after one season. That's because his tactics don't work that well with the match engine.

[Svenc]

4 minutes ago, lex311085 said:

I would say no. I love his game but its not as intricate as the developers make out. I once put all of mourinho's attributes such as man management, motivation etc down to 1 as an experiment and he still won the league comfortably with united. As someone said above I think it also comes down to the tactics and well they work with the match engine. Lots of times Ive seen on here people complaining that Pep isn't as good as irl and always gets sacked after one season. That's because his tactics don't work that well with the match engine.

As shown in the tactics Sub Forum by users, "possession styles" as such still work. He often does shuddy stuff simply.

F'r instance, not sure if currently, but on Prior Releases the AI (any AI) Always had coded a Forward to be on an attack Duty (runs Forward). Back at Bayern Munich, this left Lewandowski completely hanging and disconnected from all Play Always. Often times when results didn't go his way, he switched to his 2nd prefered Formation, in which Lewandowski couldn't ever be that hanging, which still got him the result. Yet it was no coincidence that on FM 16 for instance he oft struggled to score more than 60 Goals p/Season with one of the then most domestically dominating Squads. Basically, it's too easy to make the most Basic of "mistakes" as to FM's tactical UI. Plus, the game has not yet embraced actual Management and playing styles proper. Every Manager, AI included, is expected to "Micro tweak" until stuff works. And one "wrong" role can mess it up all.

[WojciechZed]

It's a shame. It would be nice if managers were treated similar to players, in terms of how their attributes can affect a team.

It would also be good to see managers signing the types of players they like, whereas right now it looks more like clubs sign the players and the manager there makes no real difference to who they sign. Of course at some clubs this might be the case and the managers don't have a great deal of say in the signings, but most of the time it would be the manager that decides who he wants to bring in. In each of my saves Allegri has always gone to Real Madrid at the beginning of the 18/19 season, and he brings defender Rugani with him, but I feel this is just something that happens in game, rather than Allegri specifically doing this.

But yes, generally, I think it would be good if the manager's role could make more of a difference. It's true, sometimes you look what your opponent, even with a top manager, does tactics wise, and do wonder how smart the in game managers are. One of my pet dislikes is when you are beating a team and the opposition manager makes no substitutions for ages, despite having many attacking options on the bench. He then finally brings on a defender for a defender, in like the 85th minute. Huh?