Football manager 2015

[Norgy]

Two weeks of heavy physical in pre-season.
Then I go for balanced, and some individual focus on particular areas if players really are poor there.

The two weeks of heavy training is usually enough to weed out the players that are so injury-prone they'll just play 10 matches or so and put them on The List.

For some good set pieces instructions, have a look at the site Strikerless. Man's obviously crazy playing with no real strikers at all, but he is good at organising set pieces.

Glad you enjoyed some success with my tip, katmai. I've found that way of playing relatively low risk and with some excellent fluid football as a result. I don't win every game, but I don't expect to either.

[The Larch]

Was  the 2 star ability/5 potential just because of your scout not having high judging stats?

It might also be the result of an improved squad, the star ratings are not fixed but variable. Maybe with the previous squad it could have been a 5, but if it improved it might have gone down to 3 because the squad is better and the player won't stand out so much.

[katmai]

AS i don't want to hijack Bluebook's FM thread.



Took the Leicester job with the team in 9th place with 7 games to play.

Our first game was 3.31.2018 vs Middlesbrough
I guess the team had no problem buying into a relative nobody as all previous experience was leading one team in Norwegian leagues.


We rattled off 4 straight wins, before a loss to a Portsmouth side that was on it's way to relegation.
Followed that with 2 more wins to end the season.
the 6-0-1 record was good enough to get us into playoff where we continued our winning ways and after two months on the job and total of 10 games
with a record of  8-1-1 we won promotion back to the Premiership!

[Norgy]

Think of FM as a very numbers heavy RPG.

Your team is basically a whole lot of numbers set up against die rolls in various situations.

Do your players have you as their favoured personell? Take some time to look at not just their stats, but read the reports your coaches and assistant produce. Your new Ivorian super striker may not fit in well with the current group. Your coaches may also be a bunch of tosh.

Who'd you rather have in a team that may struggle? Someone with a workrate of 5 and technique of 20 or someone with a workrate of 11 and techinque of 7?

If you have someone up front with poor finishing, but good stats for jumping and heading, get wide players that can cross rather than replace him.

[Norgy]

How the flying eff did you manage to get Harstad into the Norwegian first tier, katmai?

I've tried semi-pro sides too. Like my hometown team. They went pro after a while, allowing for better players to be signed and not to mention better development at the club. I was a constant pain in the arse for the board, asking for money for better training facilities, better youth training, more coaches, bigger stadium, pies in the sky, Messi and whatnot.

[Bluebook]

What do you guys do when you want to defend a 1-0 lead? Do you have a defensive formation you switch to, or do you just change focus to defend or contain? None of the above?

I seem to be unable to lock away games where I lead with one goal.

[Josquius]

I don't like this coach overall rating of a player for the team. It is too tempting to give into it

[katmai]

How the flying eff did you manage to get Harstad into the Norwegian first tier, katmai?

I've tried semi-pro sides too. Like my hometown team. They went pro after a while, allowing for better players to be signed and not to mention better development at the club. I was a constant pain in the arse for the board, asking for money for better training facilities, better youth training, more coaches, bigger stadium, pies in the sky, Messi and whatnot.

Well T,

I started with Basic License and as a Sunday league player (or whatever it is called) so had basic stats.
Started game unemployed so by time I took Harstad position it was in middle of their first season.
I used the tactic recommendations from you in this very thread and moved the team from just above relegation to mid table that shortened first year.
Added one decently talented (well for that league level at least) striker in off season and with whole pre season to learn the tactic we won the division going away.

My first year in Norwegian 2nd division though we struggled as my Central Defenders weren't up to snuff and we were gifting possession too much, ended up just above being relegated right back down. So for our second season  with us expected to brave against relegation, I switched to a formation of 4-2-3-1, short passing, retain possession and the team was regularly ending up with 60% + possession, we ended up coming in third to qualify for the playoffs and the rest was history.

Yeah i would have stayed with team if the Board had been willing to go professional,  it was just too hard to get anyone of good worth to sign as a part time team.
Looking at how Harstad has been faring since move to EPL feel bad as team is in dead last with a -35 goal differential.

[katmai]

What do you guys do when you want to defend a 1-0 lead? Do you have a defensive formation you switch to, or do you just change focus to defend or contain? None of the above?

I seem to be unable to lock away games where I lead with one goal.

I keep my same formation 99% of the time, but yeah I'll change focus to Counter or defend, and put sideline instructions to  take a breather, drop down more and usually in 70th minute or so I put in fresh Defender to stabilize the back line. Doesn't work 100%, but seems to do trick frequently.

[Norgy]

Bluebook, I sort of play that by ear.
If I see the opposition go forward like a pack of crazed wolves, I switch to counter-attacks and pull my midfielders back a bit.

I like my team to keep possession (granted, that's tough when you have poor players), and just make the other team run around chasing the ball.

But, like most FM players, I see those leads eaten up once in a while by a set-piece or late goal from open play.

[Josquius]

Sometimes attack is the best form of defence.
Against Barcelona and Chelsea for instance I found I would get trounced if I played defensively but keep the ball in their half so they can't take advantage of their attack minded midfield and things tend to go better.

Keeping possession... It kind of works.... But all too often with my team it leads to them failing to score despite having a million chances.

[katmai]

So with my Leicester game I used Norgy's tactic to power our impressive run to get back into EPL.

But after the first 5 games of the season was sitting at 1-2-2 with 0-5, 0-2 thrashings to Arsenal and Chelsea, and even worse a Coca Cola Cup loss to Crewe in 3rd round, decided it was vital to change up or look at being sent back down in a one and done season.

As a fan of possession, defensive soccer i was reading up and found a 3-4-3 formation and decided to implement post haste.

Our first game with it I was skeptical how well the team would take to it...




Guess they did alright

The tactic relies on keeping a solid back three and with a defensive stance so Sunderland's shot attempts looked like this.

[Josephus]

Sometimes attack is the best form of defence.
Against Barcelona and Chelsea for instance I found I would get trounced if I played defensively but keep the ball in their half so they can't take advantage of their attack minded midfield and things tend to go better.

Keeping possession... It kind of works.... But all too often with my team it leads to them failing to score despite having a million chances.

By and large my strategy thus when protecting a lead had been to stick with what got us the lead in the first place: Attacking football. I might slip to "standard" if necessary, but rarely anything more defensive.
Going to a defensive strategy, with a lower defensive line, usually cost me games.

[Josephus]

Thing I find annoying about scouting is that for instance, I scout a kid who has 1 current ability but 3 1/2 potential.
I buy him, and immediately he drops to 1 and 1 1/2. He's no longer valuable to me.

[Norgy]

I've tried some crazy formations through the years.

The craziest was a Napoli in FM 12.

Sweeper - two DCs - Wingbacks - Two MCs - Wingers - Striker.
That team was unbeatable and Cavani was scoring two a game on average.

Now I usually play some form of 4-2-3-1 with wingers. The main difference is whether I use DMs or MCs. Playing with that one "in the hole" exploiting the gap between opposition midfield and defence is just too tempting, even at the cost of defensive stability.

My teams tend to lose games early on and look shit. But I stick with the formula, and soon enough they'll be running rings around opposition players and score freely. Portsmouth from the fourth tier in the FA Cup 6th round? Sure. We play Chelsea at Fratton Park. It'll be a memorable pasting, I am sure, but Derby County, Crystal Palace and Norwich City learnt the hard way not to underestimate my shit team.
73 points in 32 games so far. I think we have a shot at promotion.