olrion

Hello,

I have owned all of the Football Manager games as far back as Champ Manager 2 and I have always been successful. However, with the latest version, FM 2008, I just can't get to grips with winning.......well winning consistently anyway!

I started a league with Manchester United and in my first season I signed Miguel Veloso who did pretty well for me. I didn't feel that I needed to bring anyone else in as I already had a strong and talented squad from the start and had Anderson, Hargreaves, Nani and Tevez from the last dealings of Sir Alex's reign.

Everything was going great for the first few months and I managed to win most of my games in all competitions and barely dropped points. Then I got drawn Arsenal in the FA Cup third round and despite putting out my strongest XI, I found myself playing 'one of those matches', the ones that no matter what you do with your formation or tactics, you still get outplayed all over the pitch.

Out of the FA cup in the third round wasn't so bad as it was to Arsenal so I could accept that. But the poor run continued and only a few games after I found myself beaten in the league Cup final, despite destroying Everton for 120 minutes the game ended 1-1 and penalties loomed. One, two, three penalty misses from Rooney, Ronaldo and Scholes and more clinical penalties from Everton saw me lose 3-0 on penalties. I put it down to 'another one of those matches'.

Out of the FA cup and out of the league cup but still winning games in the league so I wasn't too dissappointed. But then came the first knock out stages of the Champions League against Lyon, having managed to record 16 points in the group stage I was pretty confident of going through in what I thought would be an easy tie. FM had other ideas and after a boring 0-0 draw away at Lyon in the first leg, I then found myself 2-0 down at home in the second leg after 30 minutes. Two shots for Lyon, two goals (naturally!). It was only in the 80th minute that my team decided to start playing football and managed to get two late goals. 'Another one of those matches'! I hate the away goal rule!!!! I was out of the third competition, the league was my only hope of success.

So in the space of about 6 or 7 fixtures I went from a 20+ game unbeaten run in all competitions to out of the FA, league cup and Champions league. It didn't get any better, I thought I could now concentrate on catching the league leaders Chelsea. Not quite how it panned out, my last remaining fixtures saw me drawing to weak opposition like Reading, Sunderland and Bolton and losing despite all my efforts to avoid defeat, to Arsenal and Chelsea home and away in the league. I finished second 9 points behind Chelsea but 6 points ahead of Arsenal in third. If it wasn't for my great form in the first half of the season I probably would have finished mid-table!!!!

New season, new players as I brought in Michael Johnson from Man City for £23 mill (daylight robbery) and a Czech left back. I sold Partice Evra for £34 million to Inter (good business) and brought in a Czech replacement called Silk (I think). I also signed Iago from Barcelona, Marcelo from Real Madrid and currently trying to sign a decent striker after letting Saha go for 8 Million. Kuszchak and Carrick were also shown the door as they were being paid too much to warm the bench!

I started my second season with a 2-0 defeat in the Community Shield against Chelsea. Three fixtures against chelsea so far in my United career.....and lost them all. First Premiership game of the season was against Arsenal who went 4-1 up in 30 minutes, everything they hit went in.....why is that? After a drumming at half time a tactical team talk saw my team show a bit of character and get the match back to 4-3 but that is how it ended. Four games against Arsenal in my United career.....and again lost them all!

My next two league fixtures saw me draw to newly promoted Southampton 0-0 in what has to be described as the least eventful game in FM history. After the dismal draw with Southampton at Old Trafford(!) I hoped I would claim my first win against Fulham away. I outplayed them and nothing would go in, except two Fulham goals against the run of play. You guessed it, I lost the game 2-0. By this point I was about ready to smash up my computer! I reluctantly saved the game and I decided to write this.

Can any successful FM managers give me some advice about how to play this game properly and how to win 'those games'. I am in desperate need to know how to change a game when you just know that you are not going to score.

I play a regular 4-4-2 most of the time but I mix it ip by playing a diamon formation and also push my wingers into a more attacking position. I also fiddle with the team instructions and I normally expect my changes to take immediate effect but I generally end up making my team play worse.

Please help me revive my terrible season and give me some pointers. I hope you have enjoyed the story of my maiden season with Manchester United! it could be the only one I complete if I keep up my current form!!!!!

DontCallItSoccer

There's too many points on which to comment, but FM08 is definitely a more complex game than previous iterations, so more variables can affect performance, and in some cases more seriously than in previous versions of the game.

Team Morale
This seems to have a greater impact in FM08. All teams have dips in form, but the impact in FM08 is more severe. That probably explains your dip at the end of the season. Ensure you keep up morale.

Team Talks
The whole notion of team talks (and pre-match media comments) is more "twitchy" in FM08, with the effect of what you say being more pronounced. There's a thread in the Tactics forum (I think) created by Wolfsong about team talks. It's seriously worth digging it out and applying that. Worked wonders for me.

Tactics
No more super tactics in FM08, but certain things work well. Two tactics I've used with success are xavierm's 4-1-3-2 and Croat's 4-2-3-1. Your mileage may vary.

Set Pieces
Again, this works differently in FM08, so have a read in the Tactics forum about how to set up corners. Since doing that, my team scores more goals from corners, an by some margin!

And Finally...

Isn't it great that you have such a challenge, as the game would become boring and predicatble after a short time.

chopper99

As DontCallitSoccer has pointed out there are a lot of things you have to concentrate on to have success in FM.

Tactics is one of the most important things so a good read through the tactics forum is your best bet here. There's a lot of info and at first glance it can be quite daunting, but start with the stickied guides and FAQ's and take it from there.

If you're drawing or losing games that you should be winning then your tactics need work.

Moral is massively important in the game and a drop in moral can lead to a big losing streak. Do whatever it takes to keep moral up, even if that means you really want to shout and scream at your players for losing a game but have to sympathise with them instead.

Opposition instructions are very useful. I've written out some tips in this thread, you may find some of them useful.

The most important thing though is that it takes time to get used to what does and doesn't work. Just like a real manager you'll find you have ups and downs and may even suffer a few sackings before things start to gel and you get a good overall picture of what works. Just stick with it.