Until now.

Or, well, I suppose in the rest of the world it is. But I’m most decidedly not a guy, and I’ve become sucked into FM13. Having owned the game for about six months now, I’ve played through a few times…and I fail pretty dismally. I have a tendency to lose more matches than I win in particular, which I blame on FM13 being very complicated and my lack of understanding about football tactics (and football in general). Hardly surprising when you consider that I only got into football about six months ago, and that was because of FM. So I’d like to ask for help from all of you, to help me make it to the end of a season without losing more games than I win… and to keep me from being fired within the first two seasons! It’d be a first for me! Comment below and help me out, I need it!

I’ve just started a new career using the 13.3.3 database, and working at Fulham in the English Premier League.

First thing to do in a new club is to go look at the squad (after the obligatory meetings and before the press conference).  It looks like I’ve got a strong striker, attacking midfield left, attacking midfield right and centre defender. So my tactic is going to have to be fairly attacking then, using wingers or inside forwards.

My senior team also seems to have a couple of still developing and very promising players: Kerim Frei and Alexander Kacniklic (both AMRs) and Emmanuel Frimpong (a DM/CM on loan from Arsenal).

In the reserve and youth teams, there are a couple of promising players. By far, the kid with the most promise is my 15 year old goal keeper from Swaziland. Other than him, there’s Mousa Dembele (15 year old striker) and Cauley Woodrow (17 year old striker). There’s a few others showing 3.5 stars in my reserve team, but these are the three to watch.

Question number one for you guys then: how do you decide who to keep in a reserve/U18 team? I’m tempted to go through and just cull anyone with a potential of less than 2.5 stars, maybe even 3. Is that a bad idea, even when I’m working off a decent AM with 17 in JP?

So the board offered me a budget of 778 000 for wages, and 4 million for transfers. 5 million isn’t going to get me anywhere on the transfer market, I have to say. Not when it looks like I’ll need at least one back-up poacher and two decent midfielders since Steve Sidwell has prefered player moves that kind of screw up his BWM/DLP stats and Giorgas Kangounis (my AP) has PPMs that are awkward to say the least (dwells on ball and argues with referee). Question number 2, then: how important are the PPMs? Would you run Steve Sidwell as a BWM/DLP, even when he has the PPMs of an AP? Or should I sell him on and look for someone better?

But before I start fiddling with the transfer market, let’s take a look at the rest of the set up. First step, to completely revamp the staff. Every time I open a FM13 game, I’m appalled at the level of the staff there. I hope it’s not a real life reflection of the people who are working in these clubs…

So, first up is a new Assistant Manager. Although Michael Lindeman is a pretty good AM, I don’t like him because he has pretty crap JA and JP stats and some shaky man management skills. Also, as a fitness trainer, he’s just rendering my second fitness coach useless to the Senior and Reserve teams. Although given who I eventually decide to go with, that last one is a bit of a moot point.

Tord Grip is a great AM with one glaring weakness…he is a crap coach. Seriously. I can get 3.5 stars out of him in Tactics, and that’s it.  But he fits the bill for everything else except motivating (but by all accounts, no AM ever gets the motivating talks right anyway…). What do you look for in an AM?

I changed every other staff member, except for my Chief Scout (who is vastly overpaid but I’m struggling to find decent scouts so I can’t afford to release him) and one of the Goalkeeping coaches. All I’m finding, incidentally, is English scouts, mostly with poor adaptability. There’s only one or two non-English scouts with JP/JA stats above 15, and I have to pay through the nose for them. Plus, I simply cannot find a decent tactical coach willing to talk to me. My best find is a 3.5 star guy for my main team and a 4 star for my youth team. I guess I’ll have to send him on a coaching course asap…  With all the shuffling, I still managed to reduce my staff budget by about £4000 p/w, which will reduce the drain on finances.

Right, that’s about long enough for the opening set up, I think. Next time I’ll look at the transfer window, although any suggestions you’d like to make now will surely be of great help!!!

I’ve got £ 5.1m to spend, plus whatever I can get for Simon Davies (£1 mil) and maybe Hugo Rodellega (£3.4 mil) (so about £ 9.5 mil in total), and I need four players: two in midfield to cover D.L.P/A.P/BWM roles and a striker to cover the Poacher role (and a second to cover D.L.F if I sell on Rodellega). Alternatively, since of my three tactics only one calls for 2 strikers and my top two strikers can work in a Complete Forward role), do you think I need to have two back-ups or can I get away with one?

I’ve got one last questions before I sign off…. Was anyone else having the same problems as me with finding appropriate tutors. It seems like every club I load has all its best players with inappropriate PPM’s for the role, rendering them all but useless as tutors out of fear they’ll pass on the PPM (and because they’re getting on in age, they’re really reluctant to unlearn something).

Thanks for the help!

Its Football Manager the 2011 version and my friends, yes I am afraid, it is a struggle.

Rooney!  Ronaldo!  Messi!  Van Persie!

The dream names any Football Manager would want in their side. Alas ! Dream names they shall always remain when you begin your managerial life at the bottom.

Yes. Down here, below the star-studded sky, below the waves, below Atlantis, below the Titanic, there is no worry about meeting Wayne Rooney’s demands for £211,000 per week. No. But rather, at the bottom of the sea, we worry about staying within the Board’s budget of £21,000 per week – for the entire 45 man squad !

FINANCE – BOARD SUMMARY

Welcome to life at the fourth level of the English League (aka League 2).  Welcome to a club just relegated after a single season in the heights of League One, after five years of huffing and puffing to advance. Welcome to the Board’s demands of promotion, straight back up in your first season, and generously giving you a £5,000.00 transfer war chest.

Welcome to Wycombe Wanderers.

And as the chairman welcomes you to Adams Park, you already find the Board wishing to reduce the wage budget !

START OF SEASON EXPECTATIONS

If you believe all the pressure is so very great to be the biggest and brightest shining star in the premiership heavens, have a thought for those of us in the depths. Our twin goals, to avoid being crushed and ground into the sandy bottom, yet at the same time, to rise and rise and rise. And to rise with little money, little support, and no player of middling stature worth their salt even daring to glance in our direction.

On the plus side, Adams Park is fairly new, though 10,000 capacity is not very much if we aspire to move up through the divisions, and generally we will be lucky to draw 50%. So, essentially, similar to many struggling clubs, results will be paramount in order to reel in the spectators.

INFO – FACILITIES

Yet another plus, is our good training facilities, however, our drawing power for youth, the life-blood of tomorrow, should certainly be ear-marked. One of the routes to success is youth  recruitment, and once settled in at the club, we have one of our first requests to the Board – upgrade those youth facilities and place a priority on coaching. For the present, of course, we need a good balance with experience to ensure no back-sliding, as I feel the Board may not be very forgiving if they see no advancement fairly sharpish.

But yet, as we take a tour of Adams Park on our first day of employment, acclimatizing to our station in life, we need to familiarize ourselves and look into everything,  even before we settle into arranging a training schedule and booking friendlies. Firstly, we are already over budget in wages, and with the Board reducing funds already, we need to adjust. How scary is it, upon discovering  fully 32 of our 45 man squad, have entered the final year of their respective contracts !

INFO – CONTRACT EXPIRY DATES

Ouch !! Having watched the top leagues in England; Spain; Germany; Holland; and viewing all those amazing players – what a shock to find employment in England’s League 2 !! … Who the hell are these guys ?????  … Can Jean-Paul Pittman score ?? … is Kieran Murtagh any good ?? … Leon who ?? …isn’t Gareth Ainsworth about a hundred years old now ?? … and just what is a Leika-Manu Saku ?? …

Who to keep ? Who to let go ? Who to promote ? Who to demote ? Oh, what to do, what to do ??  And so the managerial headaches begin.

First, keep breathing , then, take the time to take the tour – it is only your first day on the job, remember ?

Here, at the very beginning, it is wise to consult with the hold-over coaches and see what they have to say. Go slow, if no teams are looking at anybody on your roster, why not take some time with the players you have. Set training routines, and arrange some friendlies and see how they perform. I find with friendlies, try a balance – not too easy from non league and not too hard from the top leagues. One does not wish to destroy morale immediately with booking in the big sides, but absorbing big beatings from them as well – but not too easy either, we don’t want the lads to become complacent at all. But challenging matches and challenging training. You have five weeks prior to the start of the season, use it wisely and don’t dump everyone because they do not play as well as Lionel M.

… and … ahhhhhh … the first cup (of hopefully many) coffee in the office ! And now, opening the lap-top on my new heavy glass desk – and here is my assistant manager knocking on the door already, wanting to introduce me to the staff and players. Ouch, he nearly caught me taking out my Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus from my bag. That will never do around here !! … must remember to cover up the ‘Oxford’ with a Wanderers club logo sticker !

And do the tour begins. Hmmm .. not too much staff here, hardly any coaches, only one scout , and it seems my assistant earns more money than I do !!  And he is good friends with the previous manager who was just sacked !! .. well they were together previously at another club too … must take note, can I win him over … we’ll see …..

INFO – STAFF

So, it looks as if another priority is to upgrade and obtain more coaching and scouting … should perhaps approach the Board straight away …

BOARDROOM – OVERVIEW

Well , hey , looks like the Board already have made allowances for some extra staff and coaching … good … good … so already we can advertise a few jobs and stand back for the applications to come ringing in !

Of great import, I believe, is to look for a parent club. This will be an immediate help. Ask the Board to sign one up straight away ! Perhaps you will be fortunate and get a big league team, but more than likely, a club from the second tier will be the realistic goal for the Board. Whoever they sign, the benefits will be apparent. Firstly, they will pay a yearly fee for the agreement, and will play a friendly each year at your ground. In addition to generating some badly needed income, your parent club can and will send some players on loan to you, and pay their wages in full ! So you reap the benefit both ways.

Okay, let us at long last have a look at the team ! Being new to the job, and the situation here at the club, we pretty much have to work with what we have, change slowly, perhaps looking to free up some funds, reduce wages a bit .. and still keep the ideals of what is wished for. I like a team with good aggression, stamina, technical ability … but one must make allowances according to one’s level. Therefore, I feel, here in League Two, the watch-words in regards to the squad : be lenient, and open-minded (at least at the start J )

It looks as if we have fairly good aggression, and work hard for each other .. so that is a good starting point.

Let us have a quick look at the defenders … I do want defenders with good heading ability; marking; tackling; really good concentration and composure .

As a group they score okay marks for determination and aggression – but very weak on composure, and their minds seem to wonder at the best of times. (maybe they need a good talking to!)

PLAYERS – FILTERS – DEFENDERS – VIEWS – ATTRIBUTES – MENTAL

But, in the group, only Chris Westwood is over 30 years of age. So, perhaps we can mold the younger lads. In fact, Mr Westwood deserves a closer look.

CHRISWESTWOOD

On the positive side, he has high concentration; composure; experience, an okay work rate … but he is very slow and not very mobile. Furthermore, he is on £2,000 per week – far and away the highest earner on the team – and now also in the final year of his contract. He could be one to jettison, save all that quid, and go searching for a much younger, promising defender at a much lower cost.

Meanwhile, Dave Winfield has just come over from Aldershot, just prior to my arrival, signed on a two-year deal at less than half  the wages. He is 11 years younger and already a better header of the ball, though he does seem to get rattled. But he could be a good stop-gap whilst looking at the transfer market and letting Chris Westwood leave.

DAVE WINFIELD

At least it is something to build on.

In the middle of the park, captain and elder statesman, Gareth Ainsworth at 37, still has the goods for another crack. He is a good leader, should be able to offer loads of help and tutoring to the younger lads, and is well respected and looked up to within the club.

GARETH AINSWORTH

The rest of the  midfield , at least, are hard-working, play for each other, and so therefore, the thought is perhaps to have one midfielder play very defensively to help out the defenders.

And what of up front ? Of our striking options, only Ben Strevens is over 30, and we do have a wee bit of height (though really not that much L )

PLAYERS – VIEWS – GENERAL INFO

PLAYERS – VIEWS – ATTRIBUTES – ATTACKING

However, their overall marks for being on the attack (including finishing; first touch; off the ball) are all appallingly low. It really looks as if we may struggle for goals this season – must scout around for some LOANS and FREE TRANSFERS who will be able to help our cause.

Which brings us to the crux of the matter. Here in League Two, we are on the bottom rung of the transfer market – the low-rent district – the Boot Hill of the Old West – picking over the bones of the once magnificent leading lights – dimmed by age; cracked by injury; flicked off by blown talent.

Yet another area we will target is loan signings. We can ask the assistant manager to scout around the big clubs and compile a listing of young lads they wish to earn their salt by lending them out for a season. More than likely the big clubs will even pay their wages – a very good way to bolster your standing for minimal fuss.

WYCOMBE BACKROOM ADVICE – LOAN REPORT

In preparation for the first friendly in only four days time, I wish to try out a 4-1-3-2 formation; with practice on a flat 4-4-2; and a 5-3-2 with wing backs. At the beginning the focus would be on the side blending together and I also want a very high work rate. (as I want a high pressing game) This is to be stressed in training as well, with emphasis on stamina; strength, and aerobics in pre-season.

WYCOMBE – MATCH PREPARATION

In summation, here are the immediate items to consider when you find yourself marooned at the bottom of the sea ….

1. Coaches : hire more coaches if the Board will allow it, which they certainly should. Look for specialists, according to your desires … ie technical; attack; tactics; mental strength etcetera , also look for and hire some good youth coaches
2. Scouts: hire a couple of good scouts. You cannot look around the world all by yourself, you have far too many pressing items already on the agenda ! Get the scouts looking for that tall target man on the cheap who is willing to take a low weekly wage in exchange for game time !
3. Affiliated Clubs: get your Board right away to find you a ‘parent club’ pronto. You receive an injection of much-needed cash, and will more than likely able to obtain one or two loans without paying the cost of their wages from the parent club as well.
4. Youth: look to recruit and nurture all those precocious naïve youngsters and turn them into world beaters. Hire good coaching for them, and ask the Board if they will upgrade your youth facilities to attract a better crop each succeeding year.
5. Friendlies: try arranging a few home friendlies even for your reserves and youth side. They will not only all receive valuable match practice, but home friendlies will generate needed income for the club
6. The Board: do not be afraid to ask the Board for more money for transfers, they just may loosen up the purse strings, and drop some hints about upgrading your stadium and facilities as well. They may just surprise you.
7. Loans: you are allowed five loan signings – make the most of them, and do not be afraid to approach any big teams. They just may surprise you and be more than willing to let you have some of their promising young starlets and pick up the tab for their wages at the same time ! Loan signings can help your club immensely, and many just wish to gather playing experience rather than sit on the bench or rot in the reserves with their own side. If treated correctly, they could even favour you, and you just never know what that will lead to in the future – you just may be able to recall them again the following season.
8. Tutoring: approach your club’s senior players and ask them to be a mentor to some of the younger players. They will very much appreciate being asked, especially the lads who are pushing to go into coaching once they finish their playing careers. They will appreciate the offer and you can bring them onside . Much better to have happy players at the club, than grumpy lads against you and pining for a transfers !

Just how did we perform in 2011? Were we blown away tactically? or did we make good on our own summary points?

Stay tuned, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Until then,

Eamonn O’hanlan 

That dream is reignited after a couple of seasons when regens start to become the top transfer targets for every team across the world. Some young whippersnapper with stats coming out his arse bum and has the potential to set the league alight.

Unfortunately for me, my mindset is one of negativity towards regens, a double-edged sword if you will. Let me explain.

I’m a bit of a purist Football Manager player, one that likes to progress youth and regens but also one that feels the ‘magic’ diminishes from the game when those youth and regen players that have reached their potential are filling your squad. But for those 4-5 years in the middle, there is nothing better than regen hunting, discovering a gem in the rough that even Arsene himself would be proud of.

I want everyone to be a part of that mystery, that inquisitiveness that can quickly turn to a childlike excitement if you find the next Messi.

For that reason alone I have put together the techniques that I use to find the best regens on the game, without cheating with RTE’s.

I may be taking a bit of a ‘punt’ here but I am guessing SI won’t overhaul the game in the way I think it should be and so these practices will work on FM 2014 too. (I’ve been using the same tactics since about FM 08).

First off, you must have the right scouts

The first step to finding awesome regens is having the right scouts.

It is a common mis-conception amongst newbie’s to the game that scouts are only for scouting, they’re not. Not only do they evaluate and point out the key credentials of any would-be signings but they increase the range/knowledge in countries and continents across the globe, in-turn increasing the amount of regens (and other players) that show up in your results.

believe it or not, 32% World knowledge is pretty good!

As a starting point if you’re a top-level team you need to have the right scouts under your employment, scouts that cover the main countries across the globe that produce high volumes of regens.

For me this entails Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, USA, Ivory Coast, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.  I don’t know if these are the ‘official’ places that produce the most regens, but for me these are my gut instinct about the countries that produce the best, after several years and hundreds of seasons in the game.

You need a scout for each country, in other words one that is native or has a more than 75% knowledge of that region. Secondary to that knowledge is the scouts skills and both identifying current player ability and potential ability, note that at this stage, scout stats are firmly secondary to the knowledge he/she possesses.

Heres one of mine, for Holland.

So once you have a nice collection of scouts for those regions mentioned, you are ready for the next step.

Get the search criteria right

The next step is to actually start searching for the regens you crave, here though, don’t be tempted to streamline your approach, don’t be tempted to search for all players under a certain age, if you’re looking for a defender add that position and the same for all of them.

Heres the search that I use if looking for a midfielder.

Make sure that you do not ‘check’ ‘unrealistic targets’ as many regens start on youth contracts or are not listed on transfer and loan list so unless you have 100% scouting in that region, these players will be filtered out.

Typically I find that using ’20′ as the max age gives you a good start, its rare that a regen starts the game older and usually if so they are the ones that clubs just won’t let you buy anyway.

When you have your results you need to select show ‘attributes’ and for midfielders and strikers, go for ‘technical’ as below:

Now,  your list is getting towards where you want to be, as a default it is probably showing the players listed in order of ‘value’ unless you have previously selected something else.

What you want to do now is either highlight the most important stat for your ‘perfect player’ or just flick through, pushing each stat to the top individually and having a scan through the top few dozen players looking for ‘blue numbers’.

If I was looking for a central midfielder passing and first touch would be first on my list, attacking midfielders would see me looking more towards technique and dribbling but obviously you want an all rounded player.

You can find some cracking gems doing this but you can also be fooled.

Scouting the right way

When you have found a regen or ten, the next step is to scout them which is something that I see done completely incorrectly by so many people, especially on Football Manager 14.

You have just spent thousands recruiting a scouting network that knows the regions, use that ability to get the most accurate scout report, I have seen scouts vary by 2 full stars, just because of regional knowledge.

Use a specific scout who has knowledge of the regen that the player is currently playing in. Do not use one based on nationality.

What to look out for on a report

Dealing with your scout reports become second nature once you know what to look for, they are fairly basic and to be honest i hope there is more ‘depth’ to be added to these come FM 14 but anyway, the key components here are matching a few bits of data together.

Firstly, do you trust your scout? Secondly does the regen have the current ability to help your team or the future potential to be a star? Lastly is their any frightening ‘stuff’ on the report?

As a standard, I never sign a regen or youth player unless he has a potential of 4.5 stars. The only time I would sign a potential of 4 stars is if the player is good enough to play regularly for me straight away. You will find out why in a minute.

Be sure that there is no ugly traits of the player your scouting, for example I tend to avoid anyone who ‘lacks consistency’ is poor in the big games and is ‘injury prone’. All of these will affect how effectively the player reaches his potential, which after-all is the reason you are looking to sign him.

Understand the ‘flex’ effect

The ‘flex’ effect is a name I just made up, literally this minute. But this effect is a real thing, its something that needs to be addressed.

When signing a regen or any player for that matter the ‘flex’ effect is what the real potential of the player will be if you a) played him every game, b) played him regularly or c)put him in the reserves or sent him on loan.

The flex effect swings both ways, if you for example sign a player with the potential to be 4 stars and play him often, he could easily ‘flex’ to be 4.5 or even a 5 star player in the future.

On the other hand, a young player who isn’t given time in the first team, tutored and trained specifically to hit his prime, he won’t do so. His potential could drop by 2 stars, (most I’ve seen).

It is easy to get it wrong

Stats can be deceiving, they can ‘cloud’ your judgement, lots of blues on one player can be a huge distraction that leads you to make an un-informed bid, check this dude out:

On first inspection you’re thinking “what a find”, young, stats all-over the place and cheap at that, perfect.

But look closer, this guy is an AMC, apart from decent technique and flair he just isn’t up to scratch for that position. At 19 you would want a much better passing, finishing, creativity and positioning stats for an AMC, not to mention better pace and acceleration.

Your cause isn’t helped by a scout telling you this dude could hit 4 stars, he couldn’t, as he wouldn’t perform at a level high enough for you to play him consistently enough to get to that level.

Here’s what you could have won

If you get it right the rewards are certainly there, here’s a couple of awesome regens that I have found using the techniques above. Fingers crossed that you guys are ready to find some cracking regens when FM 2014 comes out, as soon as its available for pre-order you can find it here.

CM, the next David Beckham?

Awesome striker!

By far the best RB regen I have ever seen