Football Manager 2014

[The Milner]

Is Championship Manager still a thing?

 

I think you can get an update for the most recent season, but they stopped making Champ Man a year or so ago. It was absolutely terrible compared to FM.

EA have stopped FIFA manager as well, again compared to FM its pish and the guys from EA said as much, basically they could not compete with FM. 

[Murrr]

Inspired by the World Cup and ongoing Pardew fuckery, I've been inspired to start an anti-Pardew NUFC game. Mad attacking football, creative freedom, having fun, and not being a total shitpipe. I only want one destructive player in the XI (Tiote), and that's it. If you can't play sexy football, get fucked. Even the centre-backs. BPD's or bust.

 

The first task was to sift through the shite. I was able to shift Gosling (Celtic), the Super Ameobi Brothers (Shola went to Celtic, Sammy to Leicester) and Rob Elliot (released) quickly. Nobody wanted to sign Paul Dummett, so I had to loan him to Forest, and I just can't shift Obertan. Even for free! West Ham came at me like "we'll only be interested if Newcastle lower their asking price... from ZERO POUNDS." Unbelievable. No idea what I'll do with him and his weird head now, but it'll likely involve cleaning Ben Arfa's boots and working in the canteen. I also punted Luuk De Jong back to Gladbach, just because. 

 

I was able to sign a few players with this money. Tonny Vilhena (AMC) and Jordy Clasie (CM) came in from Feyenoord, and picked Richairo Zivkovic (ST) up front Groningen. With more dough, I'd have replaced Taylor and Williamson as well, as there's no place in my vision for their rampant cloggery. I'll just have to cope with them as back-ups for the first season, unless Uncle Mike shifts enough giant Sports Direct mugs to give me a little budget boost. 

 

First XI is Krul; Debuchy, Yanga-Mbiwa, Coloccini, Santon; Clasie, Tiote; Ben Arfa, Marveaux; Cisse, Remy with Vilhena, Zivkovic and Gael Bigirimana my first choices off the bench. Season's just about to start. LET'S DO FOOTBALL.

[Adam Easy Wishes]

I just found out my assistant manager has been playing my promising young goalkeeper at right back in the reserves.

[Murrr]

GOT RID OF OBERTAN.

 

[Lemonade]

I had a few hours to kill the other night so I downloaded the demo from Steam which gives you 6 months of game time. Started as Arsenal, spunked most of my transfer budget on Sven Bender and a bunch of promising youngsters I'll never get to see develop. Started off with a 4-0 away victory at Spurs then the wheels came off and I've been ding ever since. I play 4-5-1, which doesn't really suit a squad full of attacking midfield players, but fuck them, you play in my system or you fuck off. I stuck Ozil on the left wing, he had three poor games in a row and low morale so he's been dropped. Oxlade Chamberlain is my star performer so far, playing inside forward on the right wing. Goal machine.

[Lemonade]

I bought the full game. Started a career with a Celtic which will hopefully be a relatively gentle ride while I get to grips with the new game. Jumping from 2010 to 2014 everything is massively more complicated and it's a steep learning curve, there loads of features I've never seen or used before. So far it's hard and I'm bad at it. Out of the Champions League in the qualifying stages to Slovan Bratislava FFS.

Do the rest of you have a regular formation that you play in most games or do you chop and change for every opponent?

[Moose]

[The Milner]

I use one formation for most games and a second one for games i think ill struggle more in. I try not to mess around too much with things, especially if things are going wrong. 

[Lemonade]

What I ended up doing was setting up 3 formations and then I changed all the training to "Tactics Only" and high intensity until they whole squad was familiar with them. Also had every player assigned to the role that suited them best in every position. Worked a treat, went on a winning streak and really only used one of the tactics. Feel a bit more comfortable with the game now. Disappointingly I started my Celtic game through the Demo and continued it into the full game, so because it was a quick start I don't have any other leagues playable, and I want a big worldwide game so I have to rip it up and start afresh. Torn between my usual Arsenal start or going left-field and starting my management career with Real Salt Lake City. Salt Lake is winning at the moment.

[Lemonade]

Also learned not to fine people for red cards. One guy get sent off in the league so I warned him. Very next match he got sent off in the UEFA cup so I fined him a weeks wages. He requested a meeting, I told him to stop being such a little bitch and then he refused to even talk to me. Played absolutely shite in every subsequent match, morale "abysmal", and also picked up another sending off a few games later.

[Soda Jerk]

You should avoid the MLS unless you are clued up on the rules. Drafts and designated players... Its pure bonkers.

[Moose]

[Lemonade]

I think 17 or 18 seasons is my record, in 2010. I did 8 with Arsenal, 4 with 1860 Munich, 4 with Juventus then went back to Arsenal.

[Lemonade]

After much deliberation I started out with Millwall. I've got Scotland, England, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Norway and USA active so plenty scope for bouncing around abroad if I get found out. Millwall's looking like a challenge. Not too many holes in the squad, which means I can work with what I have for the time being and concentrate on actually improving the squad rather than having to spend my first summer trying to get players in to cover all the positions, but with a transfer budget of 0 its not going to be easy. Shipped out a few senior players to raise some transfer money (bye bye Danny Shittu) and signed Papa Bouba Diop and Mikel Alonso on free transfers to give my midfield a bit of depth and experience, and splashed a few quid on Ryan Barbour and Joe Shaughnessy so I've got two decent young right backs. I think I'm going to be raiding the SPL quite a bit.

 

See you in a few months guys.

[Soda Jerk]

Going with your boyhood club. Hearty choice.

[Adam Easy Wishes]

[Lemonade]

After a promising start as Millwall manager I'm currently on a 23 match winless run and I've been given 5 games to save my job. Fascists!

[Moose]

What tactic are you using? 

[Lemonade]

I was alternating between 4-5-1 and 3-5-2. I made it to 25 games in a row without a win before I got the sack I wasn't playing that badly, was tight at the back and had a good defensive record, just couldn't score goals. I think I had about 20 goals all season.

I think I know where I went wrong though, I over complicated the tactics, I had every player set up with a player role and individual instructions, plus 4 or 5 team instructions, nobody knew what the fuck they were meant to be doing. I've started again with Celtic which is a bit more forgiving. I simplified all my tactics, took out most of the player roles and instructions, put most on default settings apart from a few impact players, stuck to two or three team instructions and doing a lot better for the most part, a few minor blips along the way. My strikers are still struggling in front of goal though but thankfully my wingers are pitching in with a lot of goals.

I feel like the Moon Moon of this thread :(

[Moose]

What are your individual roles within the team though?  You probably don't have enough players setting up to attack.  What are your philosophies, etc?  I'm just interested. 

[Moose]

AdMo's 4-4-2 works a bloody treat.

 

GK - defend

FB - support ; CD - defend ; CD - defend ; FB - support

W - atttack ; DLP - defend ; BBM - support ; W - attack

DLF - support ; AF - attack

 

Attacking; balanced.

 

Play down the flanks, drill crosses, play narrow, short and slowly.  You don't need any outstanding players, just some nice pacey wingers and someone who can pass the ball in the DLP role.  You get hunners of goals from the flanks.  Give it a try.  You should clean house with Celtic. 

 

I have some good tactics, but their more reliant on certain players (i.e. you need good players to pull them off). 

[Soda Jerk]

When it comes to individual player instructions, are you guys giving every outfield player instructions? I do, and maybe that's why it takes my teams AGES to get to grips with a tactic. But once they do, total domination. They play some dogshit football in the familiarising period though.

[Moose]

Nah, I tend to just assign the role.  Occassionally I'll give a player a specific instruction to utilise a particular attribute or to counter a specific threat, but not very often. 

[Lemonade]

What are your individual roles within the team though?  You probably don't have enough players setting up to attack.  What are your philosophies, etc?  I'm just interested. 

 

If I'm on 4-5-1:

 

AF/Attack

Inside forward/attack  -  Inside forward/attack

CM/support - CM/support 

Ball Winning Midfielder / Def

FB/Automatic - CB/Def - CB/Def - FB/Automatic

 

 

 

3-5-2

 

Def Forward/Support - Poacher/Attack

Winger/attack - CM/Support - CM/attack - CM/Support  - Winger/attack

Ball Winning Midfielder / Def

CB/Def - CB/Def - CB/Def

 

4-1-3-2

Def Forward/Support - Poacher/Attack

CM/Support - CM/attack - CM/Support 

Ball Winning Midfielder / Def

FB/Automatic - CB/Def - CB/Def - FB/Automatic

 

I usually add "Work ball into box", "retain possession", "shorter passing" for team instructions. For player instructions if I'm playing a team with poor height I'll have my full backs cross from deep, otherwise I'll have them play pretty high up and put in short crosses from the byline. If my opponent is vulnerable to attacks from the left then I'll have my defensive forward on the left side of attack, and I'll ask him to go wide and tell the poacher to hold position, it works in theory. Not so much in practice. 4-5-1 is my favoured tactic but my inside forwards tend to pick it up and either belt it high and wide (right footed player on the right wing trying a shot or vice cersa) or run in at a tight angle and hit it straight at the keeper. It just needs a minor tweak I'm sure. Maybe ask them to hold it up while a central midfielder runs on to it.

[Lemonade]

When it comes to individual player instructions, are you guys giving every outfield player instructions? I do, and maybe that's why it takes my teams AGES to get to grips with a tactic. But once they do, total domination. They play some dogshit football in the familiarising period though.

 

I did have every player assigned to whatever their best role was. I had it set up so whoever I put into each position would auto assign the role for them that I'd pre-picked. But then I seemed to find that they were all running around carrying out their individual instructions and the team performance went all to hell. Having a ball winning midfielder, a box to box midfielder and an advanced playmaker overcomplicated it all in the same midfield. Maybe if I was playing as a Man United or a team with great tactical players and all with high adaptability, but I was playing with Millwall remember. 4-4-2. Fucking HOOF. That's what they're used to.