The Higher Tempo Press
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Play Like: 1970 Brazil
This new series will take you through how to evoke the memories of classic teams over the years, recreating their tactics in Football Manager to (hopefully) win games and (definitely) have fun in the process. Club sides, international teams, league winners, cup winners and just all-round entertainers, the series will focus on the most notable […]
Play Like: Ancelotti’s Milan 2007
This new series will take you through how to evoke the memories of classic teams over the years, recreating their tactics in Football Manager to (hopefully) win games and (definitely) have fun in the process. Club sides, international teams, league winners, cup winners and just all round entertainers, the series will focus on the most […]
Know Your Role: The Half Back
One of the most underrated player roles in Football Manager, the Half Back provides serious stability to any midfield. The role of the half back is almost entirely defensive, designed to be a screen to the defence, preventing any attacks from coming through and being by far the most defensively minded player on the pitch. […]
Expected Goals in Football Manager 2021
Football Manager recently teased a short video outlining a few new features to look forward to in the latest edition of the game, coming late in November. The video included snapshots of new ways to interact with your players, new ways to initiate transfers and some exciting-looking additions to the match engine. But there was […]
Digging Through Data: Ep 9 – Sacked
Ok so the first thing I would like to point out is, using data analysis in Football Manager does work. It does. However, for this particular series, a fatal error was made early on in plumping for a high reputation Premier League side to use as our base for an experiment involving high-ranking championship players. […]
Know Your Role: Wide Target Man
One of the most underused but exceptionally effective roles in Football Manager is the Wide Target Man. Perhaps on of the key reasons for its lack of usage is that is hard to find the right player for the position within the game, but this brief guide should give an indication as to which player […]
Digging Through Data: Ep 8 – Kicking off the Season
So, through data analysis of the best players in the Championship, we have created an inexpensive, highly specialised team, designed to fit an incredibly specific system. This is unlikely to achieve immediate trophies or European football, but the hope is that it will provide enough of a platform for long term success. The time has […]
Digging Through Data: Ep 7 – The Target Man
Filling the final position for our Moneyball team meant getting in a striker who fits with the qualities of those players around him. As much of the game will be focused around crossing and longer passes, having a target man who can compete in the air while grabbing plenty of goals was crucial. Continuing our […]
Digging Through Data: Ep 6 – Finding our Wingers
As the Moneyball, data-driven team nears its completion, the next step is to identify who will be filling the wing roles. As laid out in the initial episode, we are looking for an inside forward on the left wing, to exploit the exposed centre halves, and a traditional winger on the right-hand side to whip […]
Digging through Data: Ep5 – Box to Box Midfielders
Continuing our exploration into how best to process data in FM, we need to fill the final two midfield slots in our side. The last episode saw the recruitment of the regista, the next step is to find the two box to box midfielders that will shuttle the ball between the central creator and wide […]
Digging Through Data: Ep 4 – The Regista
As we continue our exploration of data usage in Football Manager, the next position needed to analyse is the CDM, who will be our main creative outlet – the regista. This series examines the data available in game, and how it can be analysed to find the right players for your team. Take a look […]
Know Your Role: How to Find the Right False-Nine
Following on from the deep dive into the Advanced Playmaker (attack) and how to spot the right player for the role, we now move on to an equally exciting role within any team, the false nine. Much has been written about the false nine and how it operates within a team, of course dropping deep […]
Digging through Data – Ep 3 Filling the Defence
Filling the defence with statistically proven full backs and centre backs to take on the Premier League
Digging Through Data – Ep 2 The Maurauding Left Back
In the previous episode, we searched for a new goalkeeper using the extensive data available in Football Manager. In this piece, we will search for a new left-back, by analysing the data of a series of defenders in the Championship. First and foremost, it needs to be clear exactly what type of full backs the […]
Digging Through Data – The Moneyball Approach
Using real-life data analytic techniques to try and sign the most effective players in Football Manager.
Know your Role: Advanced Playmaker (Attack)
Analysing the role of the Advanced Plamaker in FM20, and how you can identify the next Frank Lampard for your team.
FM2020: Winning promotion with Leeds United at the first attempt
If you’re searching for a club to give you long-lasting enjoyment on Football Manager 2020 there is no better place to achieve that than with Leeds United. Relegated out of the Premier League back in 2004, the Whites have remained out of the top flight in English football since then. However, after ruthlessly pushing Marcelo […]
A Note from the Premier League: Set Pieces Are Back
Rise of the Set-Piece Any Football Manager enthusiast is well-educated in the world of football. The football management simulation video game necessitates a fan’s passion—and having broad knowledge of the global football climate doesn’t hurt considering the game offers players 53 countries from which to pull a team. Like many football fans are apt to […]
Football Manager in Real Life: The Top Footballing Achievements That Are Like Something Out of an FM Career
Sometimes in football, there are stories of managerial success that go above and beyond, and look like something more akin to Football Manager. Yet, these managers were not afforded the luxury of a digital ‘dodgy lasagne’, a virtual magic sponge or perfect-rated facilities. Rather, they used their guile, tenacity and creativity to forge a squad […]
The One That Got Away….. Until Now?
Since the formation of the Premier League on 20th February 1992, six clubs have won the title, but there is one club that is notably missing from that list, Liverpool. A multitude of transfers in and out, many managerial changes, cups galore, but why is it that Liverpool have not managed to win the Premier League […]
Pep Guardiola Says Manchester City Have Switched Their Focus To The Champions League
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola insists his team are preparing for the Champions League, as well as next season. The Spaniard has given up on the Premier League title chase after leading the Sky Blues to two consecutive trophy captures, conceding to Jurgen Klopp’s unbeaten Liverpool side midway through this term. The Reds would have […]
Earning Our Stripes Teil 14: Und wir sind weg!
Guten tag! Welcome back to Dirk van Oortveld’s quest to survive in the Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and get them into the upper echelons of European football teams! If you want to catch up on what’s happened previously, check out this link here. We’re back for the annual summary of the launch of the season – […]
UEFA planning euro 2020 esports tournament
The global esports industry is in for a treat. UEFA is looking to hold an esports tournament in 2020. The tournament will be held alongside their traditional football matches. With UEFA planning esports, many fans are asking what they can expect. Don’t worry – we will take a look at all that you will love […]
Beginners Guide to Football Manager
Photo by skeeze, Public Domain Football Manager is a complex and realistic game, so good techniques and patience are important to your success. With the recent release of Football Manager 2019, many veteran players will be well into their gameplay by now, using the skills they have refined over the 14 years of annual upgrades […]
Wonderkids of football: Football Manager’s predictions for the real world
Javier Saviola, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kylian Mbappe are all household names in the world of football albeit being players of a very different make. However, one very striking similarity that the three have is that they were destined for greatness even when they were youth team players, as per the predictions of the video game […]
Old vs New. How Football Manager 2019 Compares to Previous Titles
Football fans and gamers rejoice – Football Manager 2019 will be hitting our physical and virtual shelves on the second of November. The newest title of the Football Manager Saga, a series appreciated for its realism and used as a source of scouting for fresh talents by real-life clubs, promises a lot of changes to […]
Urwin’s Unemployment Challenge | Chapter 5
Welcome back to chapter five of English manager Nicholas Urwin’s unemployment challenge. He is pursuing his third season in Malaysia and we pick up at February 2020 in which Urwin is managing newly-promoted side Negeri Sembilan in the first tier. A high intensity pre-season full of fixtures every few days saw the new members of […]
Urwin’s Unemployment Challenge | Chapter 4
Welcome back to chapter four of English manager Nichloas Urwin’s unemployment challenge. He continues his fantastic second season in Malaysia and we pick up at June 2019 in which Urwin is managing second tier side Negeri Sembilan who are currently in 1st. After a 5-2 win in his last game in charge, Urwin is looking […]
Earning Our Stripes Teil 12: Es war eine hart umkämpfte Schlacht.
Guten tag! Welcome back to Dirk van Oortveld’s quest to survive in the Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and get them into the upper echelons of European football teams! If you want to catch up on what’s happened previously, check out this link here. Folks, it’s been a hard fought battle to make it to the end, […]
Earning Our Stripes Teil 11: Junges Blut
Guten tag! Welcome back to Dirk van Oortveld’s quest to survive in the Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and get them into the upper echelons of European football teams! If you want to catch up on what’s happened previously, check out this link here. Today’s date is March 6, 2019, which means it’s time for my favorite […]
Letou Decide: Swansea City vs. Chelsea Preview
Tonight Swansea City host Antonio Conte’s Chelsea and the initial signs as I look at a preview are not good. I don’t like teams that have lost their last game, unless they’re on some sort of long bad run (as Manchester City were). An emotive sort like Conte will demand a response and that’s never […]
Earning Our Stripes Teil 13: Vorbereitung auf die zweite Staffel
Guten tag! Welcome back to Dirk van Oortveld’s quest to survive in the Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and get them into the upper echelons of European football teams! If you want to catch up on what’s happened previously, check out this link here. The 2019/20 preseason has been wrapped up, and we’ve got a bit of […]
Urwin’s Unemployment Challenge | Chapter 7
Welcome back to chapter seven of English manager Nicholas Urwin’s unemployment challenge. He is pursuing his third season in Malaysia and we pick up at February 2020 in which Urwin is managing newly-promoted side Negeri Sembilan in the first tier. A high intensity pre-season full of fixtures every few days saw the new members of […]
Letou Decide: Swansea City vs. Chelsea Match Review
Well, that didn’t quite go to plan, did it? I dismissed the Chelsea game out of hand, we’d be lucky to get a beating of less than three goals with Hazard, Morata and Fabregas on the prowl and that would at least protect our goal difference. What I didn’t expect was Chelsea to be completely […]
Letou Decide: Mlog 20th April
It’s a big one this weekend, on Saturday afternoon we travel to Wembley to face Gerardo Martino’s Everton side. I want the FA Cup. More than that, I think we’re in with a hell of a shout of winning it! The teams left in are ourselves, Everton, Stoke City and Crystal Palace. None of the […]
Rangers’ Ojaria tops the list of hot prospects to look out for in the SPL in 2018/19 according to Football Manager
Football Manager is such a phenomenon in the football industry that even current managers of professional clubs use the scouting database to hunt for talent across countries and even continents. Sam Allardyce is famous for his support of statistics and in the past has revealed he used FM’s database to build initial data on a […]
Brexit Bournemouth Part 22
There’s a few points of interest to take care of before we get down to the analysis and transfer portions of the summer of 2020. The first thing of note is that Steve Cook is the only one of my players to make it into the Premier League Team of the Year. Seems a little […]
Scouting at the World Cup
The World Cup is an incredible month for many reasons. First of all, it is four-and-a-half weeks dedicated to the beautiful game. It is the only time in your life when you will be salivating over your morning cornflakes at the prospect of Morocco taking on Iran only a few hours later. There is also […]
Letou Decide: Mlog 17th April
We take on Chelsea tomorrow night so that means that the press are back. The real story is that I’m planning to field a complete reserve side to preserve our fitness for Everton at the weekend but I’m not going to say that out loud. Before we do a grip and grin, there is news […]
Scars And Stripes Episode 28: World Cup Prep & Squad Selection
This came around very, very quickly. It seemed like only yesterday that I finished my campaign with Atlanta United, suffering heartbreak in my final match as my dominance came to a close with defeat in the MLS Cup final. Time has probably gone quickly due to the fact I took a three-month holiday in game […]
Parità dei sessi 7: Mathletes into battle
There’s a fist-sized hole in the door to the Torres dressing room. Inside, goalkeeping coach Virgilio Cottu (personality: temperamental) was fuming. Nine goals conceded in three games. Not counting that crazy 4-3 loss against Matara, that’s as much as the rest of the season combined. New to the series? Click here for the prologue and […]
Earning Our Stripes Teil 10: Die Dinge könnten besser laufen…
Guten tag! Welcome back to Dirk van Oortveld’s quest to survive in the Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and get them into the upper echelons of European football! If you want to catch up on what’s happened previously, check out this link here. I was trying to come up with an interesting way to sum up the […]
Letou Decide: Swansea City vs. Tottenham Hotspur Match Review
Ladies, gentlemen, boys, girls, children of all ages, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Charlie Tango and I am the greatest Football Manager of all time. That might be hyperbole but the sentiment stands, having just governed a Swansea City victory over Tottenham Hotspur. After the game the press were quick to […]
Inept International Manager: Ep.13
Not talking, this matters. Wait, I can’t do that. Very quickly here’s a FIFA World Cup update. After Australia beat Italy and the last embers of my nerves were frayed, Spain drew their game with Uruguay with a Desmond. Denmark are off the mark in our group with a 1 – 0 win over Ghana […]
Urwin’s Unemployment Challenge | Chapter 3
Welcome back to chapter three of English manager Nicholas Urwin’s unemployment challenge. He continues his journey in Malaysia and we pick up at July 2018 in which Urwin is managing second-tier side Negeri Sembilan who are currently in 8th and underperforming. After a 5-2 defeat in his first game in charge, Urwin is looking to […]
Scars And Stripes Episode 29: Bumper World Cup Special & Series Finale
Here we are then, the World Cup. It’s 2022 and, like most Football Manager saves, the tournament has been moved away from Qatar. In this save, we instead head off down under to Australia. Our first group match is against Gabon, ranked 42nd in the world, before a tight clash against Serbia- ranked one place […]
Beating Nuno – Chapter Thirteen: Four Games To Go
Quite eerie this is. Chapter thirteen being released the day after Friday the 13th. Surely I couldn’t have planned it to happen like this, could I? I’ll let you be the judge of that. Jokes aside, it would’ve been written up sooner but I’ve only just about finished celebrating Neves’ goal against Derby in real […]
Chronicles of a Chancer: Part 11 A Year in Review
Bronze-Wig We Made a Mountain out of a Mole Hill: The Review So, I want to explain in a bit more depth the quality of the squad and how I’ve built a team of back-to-back title winners and how we competed with other top teams from around the world. Money: When I first joined Braunschweig […]
Letou Decide: Swansea City vs. Tottenham Hotspur Preview
Colour me shocked, last night I attended Leicester City vs. Huddersfield Town and it was a brilliant game! Leicester have not sat back on their laurels having had a bad start to their season, they’ve splashed some serious cash on Luis Alberto from Lazio, Marouane Fellaini from Manchester United, Joshua Brenet from PSV, Ricardo Esgaio […]
Earning Our Stripes Teil 9: Der Beginn der Bundesliga-Saison
Guten tag! Welcome back to Dirk van Oortveld’s quest to survive in the Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and get them into the upper echelons of European football teams! If you want to catch up on what’s happened previously, check out this link here. In the previous update, we made it through the preseason ahead of our […]