General Hints and Tips that every good Football Manager should know
Average Rating: 7/10 Hits: 2370 Submitted: Feb 29, 2008
Are you struggling in FM2008? Or are you a hardened Football Manager who's still finding success after all these years? Whatever your approach to FM2008, this collection of obvious hints and tips is bound to get you thinking and possibly point out where you're going wrong, they may be obvious, but the oldest rules are usually the wisest.
1. Don’t fall for the old adage of setting a tactic in stone. Choose the formation that works with the best players you have, use your pre season friendlies to see the effect of different tactical instructions and amend them to the strengths of your squad.
2. Never play the full 90 minutes with the same tactical instructions, tweak them to reflect how the game is going - you’d be amazed how many goals you can pick up just by going all out attack for the last ten minutes!
3. Never let your assistant manager take team talks - he will ruin morale of the team and undermine you
4. Never sign more than half a dozen first team players in one transfer window - you’ll be setting yourself up to fail
5. Always go for the least ambitious expectations when joining a new club. This will give you more of a chance of lasting past christmas.
6. Training isn’t just something to keep your players busy during the week. Use it to your advantage and you and your players will go far.
7. The reserve team isn’t just for the players you don’t want anymore - use it to give your youth players a run out before blooding them in the first team and also for giving players returning to the first team some match practice.
8. Scouts aren’t magicians - they don’t just find players because you send them there - they need to build up their knowledge of the area. As a rule I continuously send my scouts to the same region and don’t listen to their reccomendations until at least their 3rd mission.
9. Remember that a lot of the stats within FM are random - Just because someone posts that a player is decent on a forum doesn’t mean he’s going to be a world beater in your game - in simple terms - do your own scouting!
10. The best way to improve your skills in this game is to manage in a league you know nothing about. This way you will improve your skills rather than relying on the reputation of the players you know.
11. Just because a management style/tactic worked at your previous game/club doesn’t mean it’s the bible you must manage by. You’ll get a lot further by treating each scenario as a new one rather than trying to adapt your team to your methods, adapt your methods to suit each new challenge.
12. You learn more from losing a game than you do from winning one. Instead of concentrating on what you got right when you were winning. Dig deep into your defeats and work on correcting what went so horribly wrong.
13. CA/PA isn’t the be all and end all - someone with high work rate/teamwork can sometimes be a whole lot better for the good of your team.
2. Never play the full 90 minutes with the same tactical instructions, tweak them to reflect how the game is going - you’d be amazed how many goals you can pick up just by going all out attack for the last ten minutes!
3. Never let your assistant manager take team talks - he will ruin morale of the team and undermine you
4. Never sign more than half a dozen first team players in one transfer window - you’ll be setting yourself up to fail
5. Always go for the least ambitious expectations when joining a new club. This will give you more of a chance of lasting past christmas.
6. Training isn’t just something to keep your players busy during the week. Use it to your advantage and you and your players will go far.
7. The reserve team isn’t just for the players you don’t want anymore - use it to give your youth players a run out before blooding them in the first team and also for giving players returning to the first team some match practice.
8. Scouts aren’t magicians - they don’t just find players because you send them there - they need to build up their knowledge of the area. As a rule I continuously send my scouts to the same region and don’t listen to their reccomendations until at least their 3rd mission.
9. Remember that a lot of the stats within FM are random - Just because someone posts that a player is decent on a forum doesn’t mean he’s going to be a world beater in your game - in simple terms - do your own scouting!
10. The best way to improve your skills in this game is to manage in a league you know nothing about. This way you will improve your skills rather than relying on the reputation of the players you know.
11. Just because a management style/tactic worked at your previous game/club doesn’t mean it’s the bible you must manage by. You’ll get a lot further by treating each scenario as a new one rather than trying to adapt your team to your methods, adapt your methods to suit each new challenge.
12. You learn more from losing a game than you do from winning one. Instead of concentrating on what you got right when you were winning. Dig deep into your defeats and work on correcting what went so horribly wrong.
13. CA/PA isn’t the be all and end all - someone with high work rate/teamwork can sometimes be a whole lot better for the good of your team.
