Rangers Team Guide in FM2008
Average Rating: 7/10 Hits: 2542 Submitted: Jan 20, 2008
Here you can find various hints and tips when it comes to managing Rangers in Football Manager 2008. Ranging from all the basic information about the club, the history of the club, the expectations of the club in both the current season and over the coming years, an overview of the squad and players at your disposal, the best players to buy, the players you should be looking to sell, the best tactics to use, both for attack and defensive and much, much more.
Basically everything you need to know, to aid your career managing Rangers in the Scottish Premier League, in FM2008.
As I do not have the time to fill in all the details concerning Rangers I will quickly summarise the main points in my following guide.
Summary: Despite being featured fairly highly on the rich list, do not expect to be given a lot of money! Despite having won the treble (including the Champions League) in my first season, I was not given any financial backing.
The Start:
The goals in FM 08 probably reflect Walt Disney's in reality. The board expect you to clinch the league within two years, secure the cups and to get into the group stages of the champions league. If I am right in thinking, you will get a transfer budget of £1.2m.
I found Rangers to be a good challenge because although you only really have one or perhaps two challengers to the domestic trophies... trying to pull of a success story in Europe is mighty difficult! However, I find Rangers to be a sold all rounded team and with the right tactics and signings, a real potential success!
The Starting Squad
Allan McGregor is a solid if unspectacular choice between the sticks. He is fairly strong in the crucial GK attributes and will provide some reliability in the goal.
Roy Carroll was my second choice and is not any better or worse than McGregor. He provided a reliable back up and between these two goalkeepers, I would not recommend any additions unless of course you are doing it for economical reasons.
Defence
Steven Smith - Initially injured in the game for a few months! There does not appear to be any cover at left back except for Papac. Steven Smith is a solid full back and was ever reliable at left back.
Allan Hutton - It is a shame this game came out when it did otherwise Hutton might have received the ability he deserves. Despite not being as good as he is in real life, he still boasts solid stats!
Cuellar - simply put, the Gers best defender. I relied on him heavily on the first seasons. GOod tackler, strong in the air. Decent Physical attributes, all in all, an important stone on which you must build your foundations on!
Any Webster - solid but injury prone and only on loan. I personally took a liking to him and seemed to provide a steady string of 7's all season.
The others - Personally, I don't rate papac and so sold him to free up a bit of money. Webster and Broadfoot are competent enough to deal with most scenarios. Alan Lowning is okay and is a suitable replacement for hutton in the SPL, or Cups but can be rather exposed if you are facing the trickery of say Silva in the champions league.
Midfield
Charlie Adam is a very good player and is crucial! A good playmaker with very strong scorng abilities makes him a valuable asset. He ended up with player of the year I believe and his 7 goals in the Champions League demonstrates what a potent weapon he can be.
Kevin Thomson and Barry Ferguson appear to work well together in a tough but fluid midfield. Both are pretty all rounded players can adapt to most persons playing styles. Chris Burke and Naismith are very good wingers who capable of notching a few goals.
I must recommend the sale of Damarcus Beasley. For th £2.5m you will receive for him, you could buy players twice his potential!
Lee MCCulloch and Alan Gow are decent wingers and will do the job in the SPL but If you plan on a lot of wing play... you may feel a need to upgrade on these lads because they simply can't hack it in the CL. Finally, Steven Whittaker is a useful and versatile player. He comes in handy when injuries mount up or where yo are needing a bit of flexibility.
Strikers
Personally, I found Darcheville horrific! He could barely find the net, and despite having good stats, I felt a need to move him on. Daniel Cousin is not much better and thus we are left with Kris Boyd. Kris Boyd IS a good goal scorder, but just like in real life, all he can really do is score goals. If you are looking for a striker who can do a bit more then see below. However, if you are just need a guy who can feed off scraps then Boyd may be ideal and not worth selling?
Recommended singings - Pablo Piatti - I paid £65k for him and it was a mockery of his talent. Piatti won me the CL Final single handedly with two efforts from 25 yards against Man Utd. As a playmaker, the boy is incredible. He comes up with a fair few assits and scores a fair few too! Highly recommended and within a season his value reached £5.5m!!!
Mika Aartilo - Now in my AC Milan side after I was impressed with his perfomances for Rangers. I signed him for £150k from a Finnish side and he ended up scoring 16 goals in 30 games from the wing! I would say that he is a superb find and given the price tag, he is a brilliant bargain. Expect the EPL clubs to come knowing at your door with £10m+ a season later! He is creative, good finisher and strong in the air. He can operate as a striker too!
Mauro Zarate for Al-Saad - £3.5m - The value is at £11m but you can sign him for 3.5. The guy is a natural born goal scorer. Not only is he a great solo striker, he is very capable at free kicks. He makes Juninho look like an amateur at times! Zarate seems to be a very able striker in the game and enjoyed a hat-trick against real madrid!
Ever Banega - Excellent defensive midfielder for £3m. His Potential ability is very high and I always recommend signing him. Great passing and technique make him ideal for all styles of gameplan.
Falco - Another candidate for striking.
Barkroth - a 15 year old kid for IFK Gothenburg. He is the future of the game and I recommend signing him. Not many scouts rate him but i tell you this much... any kid who is capable of scoing at the barenbaeu from the age of 17 is something special. His stats are very impressive and he could be the biggest bargain you will come across in the game.
The Staff
A major overhaul is needed here! Start off by brining in Mike Phelan as your assistant manager and giving Ally McCoist a job as coach. Bring in any personal faves, otherwise I recommned guys like Steve Burns, Matthew Croddack (Southampton Coach). The reason I suggest an overhaul is because I found that, Jim Stewart, McCoist and and another couple of lads aside, the coaching at Rangers was pretty poor. Money must be invested here! The simple reason being is that rangers DO have a solid squad of young players and with the right coaching, they can be a strong force. In fact, a small in take of new staff could be more beneficial to your side than say having one £2m + player. Remember, this is Scotland. You will never get a huge warchest and developing young talent is your best recipe for success.
Scouts - Rangers hardly start with the best of scouts and unless you have an extensive pre-created shortlist which was created by a certain FM player... you will need to bring in another scout. As I had these shortlists, i was able to figure out who would be good purchases. Anywho, the list did omit a few young gems... Namely Barkroth from IFK Gotenburg.
Physios- The current rangers physio is okay and will do for all intents and purposes. People have their own opinions on the importance of having a good physio. My attitude is rather cavalier and I see injuries as a chance to try and get some other players experience and did not feel an urge to bring in an even better physio. Most people would say this is an idiotic view to take but remember... Rangers will never amount to more than a feeder club to the real big guns and thus it is the team that is important.... NOT THE PLAYERS!!! You will have players who you play on a regular basis such Ferguson or Ceullar... but unless you can find a better physio on the cheap, i don't think that it is worth it because these guys can be replaced easily enough with a little tactical adjustment. For example, Celluar was injured for my crucial knock out games against Porto... simple solution is to use Kirk Broadfoot who maybe slower but is equal to Celluar in every other department. This point leads onto my next...
Tactics
People go around saying... "this tactic won me the league with Man Utd... I got 79 points and scored 80 goals... i even won the champions league". I have tried these "instant fix tactics" and don't really see any particular reason why they are better than all the other tactics posted. However, most people do find a tactic that they like and may stick with it. There are two schools of thought... one is that a tactic should fit the team - (applied by guys like Sam Allardyce) and the other is that a team should be formed around the tactic (Arsene Wenger anybody?). I personally prefer the later and adopted this with Rangers.
Rangers are on par with celtic in terms of squad strength. However, the squad is very determined and pretty all rounded. This means that there is a lot of scope for tactics to be used. However, unless you have a tactic that seems to work for all situations like I did, you may want to vary your game plan in europe. The next section could get posted in Tactics and may do that later. The tactic I used and recommend is as follows:
The Danilson / Donatello
When I play Footie Man 2006 I was strugging to come up with a tactic that I could swear by. In the old Champ Mans I swore by the 4-1-3-2. However, the effectiveness of this formation seemed to wane. After trying and trying and searching around the web, I finally hit upon this tactic called the Danilson. It was written by a guy on a FM forum which no longer appears to exist. The tactic appears to be inspired the formation portugal use which is a 4-2-3-1.
The formation looks rather exotic but it is extremely effective. I love it because big teams just don't know how to cope with it and plays a very exciting game of football. The tactic is very flexible and can be adapted to suit the defenesive minded player. However, as it stands... it is very calvalier. I have always taken the attitude that if they can score 4... then I will score 5. In my view, attacking is the best line of defence. The tactic can be infuriating at times... 30 shots on goal with only 1 or 2 goals at the most. However, it produces moments of sweet ectasy... how about but 3 past Roma in their own backyard ? Or slotting a magic seven in Prague. The beauty of this tactic is that you can assemble an ideal squad cheaply.
As i said before, I have used this tactic since Footie Man 2006. It was in this game that I found it very effective. With Atletico Madrid... I won 4 leagues in a row (one season without even losing a single competitive game!). My entire team occupied the Ave Ratings list... lowest being 7.82. Numerous other player awards etc and various champions leagues until i stopped playing the game. I will admit, I did not play FM 07 that much but it seemed to be as effective as ever with a few modifications. Now, the formation I am giving you at the bottom is the oringinal Danilson formation. Personally I don't find this as effective as the modified versions but I will let you judge for yourself.
Firstly
GK - Naturally a decent shot stopper with solid attributes. Kicking and throwing in particular can be handy for it the Counter Attacking nature of it.
DR / DL - Pace and strength is pretty important as are all the other normal defence attributes. These guys are not the most important players in your team but poor shows will be apparant.
DC - If you play the way I play then these guys can be pretty damn important. Good tackling, strength and pace appear to be the most important. I don't think it requires any particular type of defender, but I think anticipation, team work and marking are important given the Tight Marking and Counter Attack options.
MC's - These guys must work well together. They must be in essence DMCs. The more all rounded they are the better. Using twin midfield destroyers can be very effective where you are against a particularly creative team where as more creative guys might be required against say ruthless Italian sides. It doesn't take much intelligence to work out ideal players for this position. Think Makalele, Gattuso as good examples. In the past, I have used Fabregas, Zapater, Sahin, Kevin Thomson, Banega, Barry Ferguson, Gattuso, Ambrosini, Emre, Kheidra, Mascerano, Darren Fletcher and Steven Whittaker all to great effect. Alot of sides have ideal players and you can pick players depending on your level.
AMC - Without a shadow of doubt the most important player on the park. The guy is the heart and without this fella playing, the formation will not work. There is no excuse for not having a good player in this position as ideal playmakers start from a price of £60k (Pablo Piatti). The essential attributes are passing and creativity. Long Shots and Finishing are very important too because he will chip in with a lot of goals. Good technique is ideal, as is team work, positioning and anticipation. The most lethal weapon I have used in this position had to be Diego of Weder Bremen. Other good examples include Charlie Adam (believe it or not!!!), Joao Moutinho, Milinec ?, Sosin, Nasri, Landon Donavon and all the other obvious ones Kaka, Totti etc.
AML/AMR - This is the tricky part. Specialism is the order of the day for this position. Ideally you should a guy who is at least Accomplished as a AML OR AMR... AND ST. The simple reason is that they need to be able to have a strikers goal scoring instincts but wingers skill. Sound like a rare bread don't they? No wonder Portugal were so successful with this tactic with Ronaldo and Figo occupying these positions. Previously, find guys capable of playing this role was very tricky. There were so few players who could play AMR let alone AMR / ST who were either good or cheap!!! Now with the advent of guys like Mika Aartilo and Barkroth there is no excuse. Crossing, Finishing, Creativitiy, Long Shots, Dribbling, pace and passing are important. Do not worry though because there are plenty of players who fit this mould. The reason finishing and long shots are important is because you will depend on them taking their chances. Creativity is probably the most important. Don't worry if the finishing or long shots are low because hopefully they will take enough of their chances even with a finishing as low as say 12 (N'Zogbia proved this theory for me). If you have somebody who has all of the aforementioned attirubtes with say a creativity of 14 or below then you may wish to restrict the amount of creativity that winger has. It doesn't deter the performances too much. However if you have creativity of say 10 or less then think about getting a new AML/AMR!!! Players that have worked well include Shaun Maloney, Milner, Saviet, Aartilo, Aguero (after retraining him) Reyes, Downing, Casano, Mancini, Rooney, Messi, Maxi Rodriguez, Chris Burke, Steven Naismith.
ST - Given that you are looking for a person who can deliver at least 25 + league goals a season, finishing is obviously the most important. Strength and pace are important attributes. creativity, first touch and heading can help a lot too.
I hope this well get some people started. I hope to finnish this when I get more times!
Summary: Despite being featured fairly highly on the rich list, do not expect to be given a lot of money! Despite having won the treble (including the Champions League) in my first season, I was not given any financial backing.
The Start:
The goals in FM 08 probably reflect Walt Disney's in reality. The board expect you to clinch the league within two years, secure the cups and to get into the group stages of the champions league. If I am right in thinking, you will get a transfer budget of £1.2m.
I found Rangers to be a good challenge because although you only really have one or perhaps two challengers to the domestic trophies... trying to pull of a success story in Europe is mighty difficult! However, I find Rangers to be a sold all rounded team and with the right tactics and signings, a real potential success!
The Starting Squad
Allan McGregor is a solid if unspectacular choice between the sticks. He is fairly strong in the crucial GK attributes and will provide some reliability in the goal.
Roy Carroll was my second choice and is not any better or worse than McGregor. He provided a reliable back up and between these two goalkeepers, I would not recommend any additions unless of course you are doing it for economical reasons.
Defence
Steven Smith - Initially injured in the game for a few months! There does not appear to be any cover at left back except for Papac. Steven Smith is a solid full back and was ever reliable at left back.
Allan Hutton - It is a shame this game came out when it did otherwise Hutton might have received the ability he deserves. Despite not being as good as he is in real life, he still boasts solid stats!
Cuellar - simply put, the Gers best defender. I relied on him heavily on the first seasons. GOod tackler, strong in the air. Decent Physical attributes, all in all, an important stone on which you must build your foundations on!
Any Webster - solid but injury prone and only on loan. I personally took a liking to him and seemed to provide a steady string of 7's all season.
The others - Personally, I don't rate papac and so sold him to free up a bit of money. Webster and Broadfoot are competent enough to deal with most scenarios. Alan Lowning is okay and is a suitable replacement for hutton in the SPL, or Cups but can be rather exposed if you are facing the trickery of say Silva in the champions league.
Midfield
Charlie Adam is a very good player and is crucial! A good playmaker with very strong scorng abilities makes him a valuable asset. He ended up with player of the year I believe and his 7 goals in the Champions League demonstrates what a potent weapon he can be.
Kevin Thomson and Barry Ferguson appear to work well together in a tough but fluid midfield. Both are pretty all rounded players can adapt to most persons playing styles. Chris Burke and Naismith are very good wingers who capable of notching a few goals.
I must recommend the sale of Damarcus Beasley. For th £2.5m you will receive for him, you could buy players twice his potential!
Lee MCCulloch and Alan Gow are decent wingers and will do the job in the SPL but If you plan on a lot of wing play... you may feel a need to upgrade on these lads because they simply can't hack it in the CL. Finally, Steven Whittaker is a useful and versatile player. He comes in handy when injuries mount up or where yo are needing a bit of flexibility.
Strikers
Personally, I found Darcheville horrific! He could barely find the net, and despite having good stats, I felt a need to move him on. Daniel Cousin is not much better and thus we are left with Kris Boyd. Kris Boyd IS a good goal scorder, but just like in real life, all he can really do is score goals. If you are looking for a striker who can do a bit more then see below. However, if you are just need a guy who can feed off scraps then Boyd may be ideal and not worth selling?
Recommended singings - Pablo Piatti - I paid £65k for him and it was a mockery of his talent. Piatti won me the CL Final single handedly with two efforts from 25 yards against Man Utd. As a playmaker, the boy is incredible. He comes up with a fair few assits and scores a fair few too! Highly recommended and within a season his value reached £5.5m!!!
Mika Aartilo - Now in my AC Milan side after I was impressed with his perfomances for Rangers. I signed him for £150k from a Finnish side and he ended up scoring 16 goals in 30 games from the wing! I would say that he is a superb find and given the price tag, he is a brilliant bargain. Expect the EPL clubs to come knowing at your door with £10m+ a season later! He is creative, good finisher and strong in the air. He can operate as a striker too!
Mauro Zarate for Al-Saad - £3.5m - The value is at £11m but you can sign him for 3.5. The guy is a natural born goal scorer. Not only is he a great solo striker, he is very capable at free kicks. He makes Juninho look like an amateur at times! Zarate seems to be a very able striker in the game and enjoyed a hat-trick against real madrid!
Ever Banega - Excellent defensive midfielder for £3m. His Potential ability is very high and I always recommend signing him. Great passing and technique make him ideal for all styles of gameplan.
Falco - Another candidate for striking.
Barkroth - a 15 year old kid for IFK Gothenburg. He is the future of the game and I recommend signing him. Not many scouts rate him but i tell you this much... any kid who is capable of scoing at the barenbaeu from the age of 17 is something special. His stats are very impressive and he could be the biggest bargain you will come across in the game.
The Staff
A major overhaul is needed here! Start off by brining in Mike Phelan as your assistant manager and giving Ally McCoist a job as coach. Bring in any personal faves, otherwise I recommned guys like Steve Burns, Matthew Croddack (Southampton Coach). The reason I suggest an overhaul is because I found that, Jim Stewart, McCoist and and another couple of lads aside, the coaching at Rangers was pretty poor. Money must be invested here! The simple reason being is that rangers DO have a solid squad of young players and with the right coaching, they can be a strong force. In fact, a small in take of new staff could be more beneficial to your side than say having one £2m + player. Remember, this is Scotland. You will never get a huge warchest and developing young talent is your best recipe for success.
Scouts - Rangers hardly start with the best of scouts and unless you have an extensive pre-created shortlist which was created by a certain FM player... you will need to bring in another scout. As I had these shortlists, i was able to figure out who would be good purchases. Anywho, the list did omit a few young gems... Namely Barkroth from IFK Gotenburg.
Physios- The current rangers physio is okay and will do for all intents and purposes. People have their own opinions on the importance of having a good physio. My attitude is rather cavalier and I see injuries as a chance to try and get some other players experience and did not feel an urge to bring in an even better physio. Most people would say this is an idiotic view to take but remember... Rangers will never amount to more than a feeder club to the real big guns and thus it is the team that is important.... NOT THE PLAYERS!!! You will have players who you play on a regular basis such Ferguson or Ceullar... but unless you can find a better physio on the cheap, i don't think that it is worth it because these guys can be replaced easily enough with a little tactical adjustment. For example, Celluar was injured for my crucial knock out games against Porto... simple solution is to use Kirk Broadfoot who maybe slower but is equal to Celluar in every other department. This point leads onto my next...
Tactics
People go around saying... "this tactic won me the league with Man Utd... I got 79 points and scored 80 goals... i even won the champions league". I have tried these "instant fix tactics" and don't really see any particular reason why they are better than all the other tactics posted. However, most people do find a tactic that they like and may stick with it. There are two schools of thought... one is that a tactic should fit the team - (applied by guys like Sam Allardyce) and the other is that a team should be formed around the tactic (Arsene Wenger anybody?). I personally prefer the later and adopted this with Rangers.
Rangers are on par with celtic in terms of squad strength. However, the squad is very determined and pretty all rounded. This means that there is a lot of scope for tactics to be used. However, unless you have a tactic that seems to work for all situations like I did, you may want to vary your game plan in europe. The next section could get posted in Tactics and may do that later. The tactic I used and recommend is as follows:
The Danilson / Donatello
When I play Footie Man 2006 I was strugging to come up with a tactic that I could swear by. In the old Champ Mans I swore by the 4-1-3-2. However, the effectiveness of this formation seemed to wane. After trying and trying and searching around the web, I finally hit upon this tactic called the Danilson. It was written by a guy on a FM forum which no longer appears to exist. The tactic appears to be inspired the formation portugal use which is a 4-2-3-1.
The formation looks rather exotic but it is extremely effective. I love it because big teams just don't know how to cope with it and plays a very exciting game of football. The tactic is very flexible and can be adapted to suit the defenesive minded player. However, as it stands... it is very calvalier. I have always taken the attitude that if they can score 4... then I will score 5. In my view, attacking is the best line of defence. The tactic can be infuriating at times... 30 shots on goal with only 1 or 2 goals at the most. However, it produces moments of sweet ectasy... how about but 3 past Roma in their own backyard ? Or slotting a magic seven in Prague. The beauty of this tactic is that you can assemble an ideal squad cheaply.
As i said before, I have used this tactic since Footie Man 2006. It was in this game that I found it very effective. With Atletico Madrid... I won 4 leagues in a row (one season without even losing a single competitive game!). My entire team occupied the Ave Ratings list... lowest being 7.82. Numerous other player awards etc and various champions leagues until i stopped playing the game. I will admit, I did not play FM 07 that much but it seemed to be as effective as ever with a few modifications. Now, the formation I am giving you at the bottom is the oringinal Danilson formation. Personally I don't find this as effective as the modified versions but I will let you judge for yourself.
Firstly
GK - Naturally a decent shot stopper with solid attributes. Kicking and throwing in particular can be handy for it the Counter Attacking nature of it.
DR / DL - Pace and strength is pretty important as are all the other normal defence attributes. These guys are not the most important players in your team but poor shows will be apparant.
DC - If you play the way I play then these guys can be pretty damn important. Good tackling, strength and pace appear to be the most important. I don't think it requires any particular type of defender, but I think anticipation, team work and marking are important given the Tight Marking and Counter Attack options.
MC's - These guys must work well together. They must be in essence DMCs. The more all rounded they are the better. Using twin midfield destroyers can be very effective where you are against a particularly creative team where as more creative guys might be required against say ruthless Italian sides. It doesn't take much intelligence to work out ideal players for this position. Think Makalele, Gattuso as good examples. In the past, I have used Fabregas, Zapater, Sahin, Kevin Thomson, Banega, Barry Ferguson, Gattuso, Ambrosini, Emre, Kheidra, Mascerano, Darren Fletcher and Steven Whittaker all to great effect. Alot of sides have ideal players and you can pick players depending on your level.
AMC - Without a shadow of doubt the most important player on the park. The guy is the heart and without this fella playing, the formation will not work. There is no excuse for not having a good player in this position as ideal playmakers start from a price of £60k (Pablo Piatti). The essential attributes are passing and creativity. Long Shots and Finishing are very important too because he will chip in with a lot of goals. Good technique is ideal, as is team work, positioning and anticipation. The most lethal weapon I have used in this position had to be Diego of Weder Bremen. Other good examples include Charlie Adam (believe it or not!!!), Joao Moutinho, Milinec ?, Sosin, Nasri, Landon Donavon and all the other obvious ones Kaka, Totti etc.
AML/AMR - This is the tricky part. Specialism is the order of the day for this position. Ideally you should a guy who is at least Accomplished as a AML OR AMR... AND ST. The simple reason is that they need to be able to have a strikers goal scoring instincts but wingers skill. Sound like a rare bread don't they? No wonder Portugal were so successful with this tactic with Ronaldo and Figo occupying these positions. Previously, find guys capable of playing this role was very tricky. There were so few players who could play AMR let alone AMR / ST who were either good or cheap!!! Now with the advent of guys like Mika Aartilo and Barkroth there is no excuse. Crossing, Finishing, Creativitiy, Long Shots, Dribbling, pace and passing are important. Do not worry though because there are plenty of players who fit this mould. The reason finishing and long shots are important is because you will depend on them taking their chances. Creativity is probably the most important. Don't worry if the finishing or long shots are low because hopefully they will take enough of their chances even with a finishing as low as say 12 (N'Zogbia proved this theory for me). If you have somebody who has all of the aforementioned attirubtes with say a creativity of 14 or below then you may wish to restrict the amount of creativity that winger has. It doesn't deter the performances too much. However if you have creativity of say 10 or less then think about getting a new AML/AMR!!! Players that have worked well include Shaun Maloney, Milner, Saviet, Aartilo, Aguero (after retraining him) Reyes, Downing, Casano, Mancini, Rooney, Messi, Maxi Rodriguez, Chris Burke, Steven Naismith.
ST - Given that you are looking for a person who can deliver at least 25 + league goals a season, finishing is obviously the most important. Strength and pace are important attributes. creativity, first touch and heading can help a lot too.
I hope this well get some people started. I hope to finnish this when I get more times!
