retired_lisamike

I managed Doncaster on FM07 on the X360 recently (dunno why, just picked them at random) and although the expectation was to finish in the top half of division one I somehow managed to finish in the play-off places, and win the playoffs and get promoted! Now of course I don't want to start the new season in the Championship because I know I'm going to get creamed over and over again

I also just managed Newcastle (because they are my team) in FMH 08 and finished 7th in the league and lost in the Carling Cup Final to Derby (arrrrghhhhh! not funny!).

I do sometimes find a pattern when I play my first season on FM or FMH though. Firstly, I'll usually find a good tactic early on in the season and win loads of games, so obviously stick with it. Then at about two thirds through the season something will go wrong and I'll start losing a lot. I'll panic and change tactics and nothing seems to work. So all the success earlier on is pretty much wasted. Quite often when this happens I'll choose to go on holiday for a bit (maybe even til the end of the season if I've really thrown my toys out of the pram) cos I just know I won't be able to do anything right. I wonder if this might be programmed in to the game, maybe to represent the fact that other teams have started to get used to your tactics (like in real life at the moment with Arsenal), but I don't know.

Also I'll tend to have a good or excellent first season, then the second one will be a disaster no matter what I do.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Don't get me wrong by the way, I adore FM and FMH 08, can't get enough of them, I'm just intrigued.

retired_cacuna

The 'normal' reason behind this sort of thing is either the loss of a key player (who might not be a 'star' but is Mr. Reliable for a side and without whom they tend to under-perform) or simply a young side getting over-confident and then paying the price and finding it hard to recover earlier form.

There isn't 'one' way to recover from such a issue - its a matter of determining the root cause and fixing that ... if its a young squad having a few older heads to steady the boat will help, if its a key player being out then sometimes it will take changing to a tactic which removes the old reliance on them ... as manager I'm afraid its your call.

retired_lisamike

Yeah I suspected that it would be that kind of thing, although sometimes you can't help thinking that the game thinks you're doing too well and is trying to bring you down a peg or too. I can't tell you how close I came after that cup final defeat to reloading my save game and having another go at it...ah well, I'm sure I'll get that elusive trophy for Newcastle eventually