BJG123

I posted this in the GQ forum but it may be of more use here.


I've been playing FM/CM for many years, and usually play as Norwich, so with the exception of FM 2005, I start in the English second tier, FM 2007 has for me been the most rewarding for this kind of challenge, the added realism of
this edition is most evident when playing as a newbie to the premiership, and after nearly a year of various save games, I think I can offer some advice on how to achieve success with a squad like Norwich, after you've gained promotion.

1. Tactics

There are 2 temptations to avoid when creating a tactic, the first is to decide how you want to play football, then put your players into this system. he second is to create a tactic which concentrates on getting the best out of your star players, and neglecting your weak links.

If you don't have players with high passing abilities, you can't play long ball football effectively, so don't. Similarly, long ball football doesn't work well without wither a target man, or very pacey strikers/wingers. Whilst possession football may seem more of a Barcelona tactic than a Sheffield Wednesday one, it can often yield far more genuine goal scoring opportunities.

After 2 seasons in the premiership, my XI for the 3rd season looks like this:

Gordon

Onauha
Traore
Sonko
Cahill

Bentley
Dickson Etuhu
Tom Soares
Porritt

Dalle Velle
Earnshaw

Evidently Dickson Etuhu is my weak link, so most of my time is spent on yielding good performances from him. The transfer market for a good defensively minded central midfielder is completely dry, so rather than waste 3 million on someone who can't tackle as well as Dickson (18), can't jump as high as him (19) and isn't as aggressive (18), but is slightly better all round, I've put effort into making sure he works well in my tactic. I give him as little responsibility as possible, he has very little creative freedom, rarely for forward runs, long shots and run with ball, and is set to play very defensively. He doesn't feature in my attacks because he won't add much to it. Instead he tackles hard, closes down often and passes short. His jumping and heading is useful for corners, so he's my near post flick on man, getting him 5 or so goals a season. He ends up with an av. rating of over 7.2 a season.

The transfer market

It's vitally important you play this well. Signing big batches of youth players may seem inexpensive, but when you have a 4 million budget, spending 1.5 million on too many players who won't make your first team for a long time isn't a good idea.

Don't buy a whole host of 20 year olds or younger for the first team either, get in a couple, but compliment them with experience too. There's nothing wrong with signing 30+ year olds, you need to be geared for short term success, so that you can get a good cup run or get into europe, and hence get more money. Therefore you should try to sign players better than the ones you have, not a whole load who will one day be better than those you already have.

Use the free transfer market rigorously, on the 30th december, you should be launching bids for as many people as possible, if a player doesn't want to join, offer him a contract anyway, occasionally you get lucky, and that can make all the difference. At the end of season one, Rivaldo is available on a free, go for him and players like him. Big names boost shirt sales, you get a player who is brilliant technically, which is much harder to do if you put an age limit on those types of players, as a good technical player who's in their 20's is likely to be in high demand. The old players are also greatly useful for their mental stats, they make good captains and even better tutors.

Coaching

Sack your rubbish coaches, put an advert in the job centre, and make sure you cover all areas of training. Create effective training schedules and assign the coaches properly so that you have the best star ratings you can get in all areas. This really will make a great difference in helping players reach their PA, and do stop older players going into free fall with their stats.

Do the same for the youth team, the more players you can get through your academy the better, even if you just sell them for a few hundred thousand, the revenue will really make a difference.

Scouting

Really, this is where you can turn a mid table team into a top 4 team. Get the best scouts for judging potential you can, and bring in as many as you possibly can. Then scout as much of the globe as possible, the middle east, Eastern Europe, South America and North America are particularly useful. You can easily get at least 1 player a season for a fe hundred thousand whom Chelsea will buy off you for 10 million the next year. The money you can make doing this is immense. For example, I signed an Israeli Goalkeeper for 250k, he was 18 and needed a work permit, so I shipped him off to a Polish Feeder club (you really need one), he does well, gets a work permit on a new contract the next season and a few international caps, I sign Craig Gordon on a free and sell this Israeli, who was on £75 a week, for 8 million and 40% of the next sale to Chelsea, obviously he can't usurp Cech, so he'll get fed up and move on, and I'll net a few more million from the deal.

Team Talks

Don't be too harsh, if you lose 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, tell the lads they did well, because they did, be realistic, don't tell the players you expect them to win if you're playing Spurs or Villa for example, tell them they can win it.

Variate the talks, the more you use one, the less effect it has. Reseve the "do it for the supporters!" For when you're playing rivals or you desperately need the points, don't use it for Chelsea, Man UTD, Arsenal and Liverpool.



Hope this is of some help, please help contribute and we can draw up a bit of a bible.

soldierblue123

I find in the first season after promotion to EPL... it is better to loan players. I loan players from Spain, Italy etc and borrow a team far better than one I could buy.

eg
gk lastuvka
rb carlos Diogo
LB use all my cash to buy baines
CB Squillaci
CB matteo ferrari
DM Alou Diarra
RM mauro esposito
LM Erkin Caner
AMC Brienza
FC Tavano
FC Eddie johnson - my own player

With a tam like that you should qualify for europe at least and I buy players only when the right ones come along... in 3 seasons you should be winning EPl and champs league etc if you loan right and buy only quality players when you can afford them.

danny.harv

That is a great read BJG123, I might play like that when I (hopefully) get promoted with Sunderland.

alwo

I've often found if you loan too many players you upset the team. If you're playing with 9 players on loan from different clubs there's no stability...they'll all go back at the end of the season...and a fair amount will return to their club saying that the experience was a "complete waste of time".

Having said that, signing a player like Walcott on loan can prove a master stroke, as when I did this, I became his favourite personnel and my club became one of his favourites too...which meant when I slapped in a bid to Arsenal, he was desperate to come.

SkeeterP

One of the most useful and informative posts I've read, nice one BJG.

I must admit I've always been a huge advocate of the "buy young" policy. I don't think I've ever bought a player who was younger than 25, and I'm certain that's the reason why I only do well when playing as one of the big four (most notably Arsenal).

Reading that has given me renewed enthusiasm to start a new weegie with Villa.

soldierblue123

Alwo I always get promoted as leeds in first season and in EPL finish in top 6 with 9 loan players and keep doing the same. Often I loan Carlos Vela and Walcott as my 2 domestic players and you are right they do well.

I have never had players saying it's a waste of time because I only loan players I'm going to play. And as I've said I never fail to make Europ and so better and better loan players come in... I buy 2 or 3 players when available and sign top class freebies and in 2 or 3 seasons you won't need to loan anyone and you;e an established top 4/5/6 team and qualifying for champs league every season.

It has never failed for me. And the good news is for the first 2 or 3 seasons in the top flight the board don't expect to much.